Memoirs of Story Write

Finally after such a long wait, I looked at the calendar that hung beside my table. Tomorrow is the day for the grand meeting on people all over the world from Story Write. I looked at the table watch, 9pm it reads I got ready for bed and lay down on my bed thinking of what fun events that we might have together during the meeting. Suddenly my phone rang broke the silence, calmly I picked it up. I heard Lori’s voice on the other end.1

“Wain! Please…help me…I’m being held at Barbara’s house now…I…NOOOO!”2

The line disconnected. Panic began to surge within me. Steadily, I stood and quickly departed for Barbara’s house. I drove there as fast as I could, ignoring many obstacles in my way. All I could think of was Lori’s Safety. Upon reaching Barbara’s house, it was dark and not even a single light was on. As expected I thought, I crept towards the house stealthily and decided to enter the house through the back door. Slowly I started crawling under the windows to remain unseen as I slowly made my way to the back of the house. Tiny muffled sounds could be heard as if someone was rummaging through the house. Worrying even more for her safety I hastened my crawls towards the door. Upon reaching the door, I managed to open it noiselessly. Expecting an attack I stood beside the door for a few moments. Plucking up my courage I took a quick peek and saw nobody was waiting to attack me. Hastily I went it and close the door behind me, creeping slowly taking 1 step at a time and armed myself with a rolling pin that I saw lying nearby. To my surprise the living room was totally empty, although it was quite dark but I could still maneuver around due to the moonlight that was brightly peeking into the house tonight. A few muffled voices could be heard from above and without much thought I climbed up the flight of stairs hastily and carefully. Again the whole level was too quiet. I was getting suspicious before hearing the sound of two gunshots being fired from the last room of the corridor. Immediately I went to that and carefully pushed open the door slightly and quickly dodged to the side, as I was expecting a few shots to be fire through the door by the killer.3

“Damn!” a manly shout was heard before I heard the crashing of a glass window.4

I quickly dashed into the room and what I saw was a bloody sight that I could never ever have forgotten in my whole life. The smell of blood was in the air and I could make out two bodies lying on the floor heavily soaked in blood. I quickly made my way to the window to see who did this but I was too late. In a fit of anger I banged on the window ledge. Quickly I looked around for any sign of life and in a corner of my eye I could make out the shadow of a girl being tied to a chair, she was unconscious and quickly I went over and checked her pulse, she was still alive! Quickly I untied her and removed the cloth that she was forced to bite on. I could hardly see the face but from it I could roughly guess that it was Lori. Thank Goodness I thought.5

”Lori! Wake up Lori!”6

While holding her in my lap and shaking her7

“Uhmm…” slowly she started to stir up, a hand she placed over her forehead 8

“Ughh…where am I…? Wain! You’re finally here to rescue me! I’ve been…” She burst into tears while crying on my shoulder.9

“Its okay now…stops crying alright everything is going to be okay now…”10


After she settled down, I switched on the light and saw the other dead body was Anna. Fresh blood was staining the floor everywhere and Barbara’s body was lying a few meters away from Anna. Placing my palm on my forehead I thought, damn if only I came earlier. I turned around and looked at Lori. A very surprised look hung on Lori’s face. She must have not seen this scene considering that she was unconscious all these while. She grasped tightly at my hand, while hiding behind my back her eyes still teary, she looks as if she’s going to cry again.11


“Don’t worry alright. Relax, you could close your eyes if you want to but I need to know what exactly happened here.”12

Comforting her and trying to calm her down I place my hand on her head and gave her a small pet.13

“Relax alright its going to be fine…”14

A moment of silence…and she took a deep breath before saying15

“Um…Well… I was invited by Bar to here when she said she’s got a very important moderator meeting. It was supposed to start at 7 pm but I came earlier at 6.30. By then I saw Bar was playing chess with Anna while waiting for the rest. I sat there in a corner in this room watching them play and chatting with them then suddenly Crazy Scott and Guitar Shanks came along. I was getting the drinks for them and suddenly I heard them quarreling on top. When I went up to this room all it was already in a chaos like this, they were arguing on top of their voices and that’s when I called you…but Scott came to me threatening me with a knife and I was shoved into the room and I was hit by something hard with from behind…and since then I was unconscious till you woke me up…”16

“Ah I see. It must be hard on you but I’m glad that they didn’t kill you. Just moments before I came in I heard gunshots and I managed to lure his attention away and he escaped through the window…what about shanks then…?”17

“I don’t know…I didn’t see him in the room when I was shoved in here…”18

“I see. We got to call the police now. Hold on a moment alright…”19

“Alright…I’ll go out and take a breather first…I’m sorry but staying in this room is making me nauseous”20

“Go for it, I’m sure you’ll feel better after that.”21

Carefully she walked slowly step by step not to touch anything in the room and exited of the room with a relieved look in her face. Suddenly she bent down in front of the door.
“Are you okay?”22

“Yes. So sorry I was just a little nauseous. Must be the stench of the blood that got to me”23

“Be Careful.”24

“I will thanks.”25

As I walked around the blood soaked room, I found an unfinished chess game laid beside Barbara and beside it was a piece of paper. Carefully I picked it up and found that it was only a piece of completed sudoku. What interest me was small letters and numbers written above each of the 3x3 boxes and some circles and arrows that pointed to the direction on the numbers in each of the sudoku puzzle. I tried to figure them out but to no avail. No matter how I look at it, they don’t make any sense to me. I gave up looking on that for a moment and pocketed the piece of paper. Then I started to search for other clues around the room after a while I heard some ruckus from below and a scream followed afterwards. I quickly went out of the room and shouted from above. It was still dark outside, Lori have not found the switch to switch on the light. The only light that showered us was the moonlight that peeked from the crystalline glass above the ceiling and the lights coming out from the room.26

“Lori! Are you alright! Lori answer me!”27

“I’m…okay… but I just tripped over something here…”28

“Watch your steps… you just scared me really bad I was afraid that something might happen to you…”29

“So someone is worried about me now huh…”30

“Of course. Anyone would worry! Who wouldn’t in such a situation?” Blushing a little I turned away from the moonlight that stretches its rays on me.31

“Oh really? Is that the only reason?”32

“I…”33

“LORI! Are you in there? Please answer me!”34

From below I heard the sound of Kylia knocking fervently on the front door.35

”Well, open the door for her. I guess I’ll be going back to the room for a while…”36

After a few moments I heard more screams. Hastily I went out again making sure that they are okay. By this time the lights was already switched on.37

“What the…”38

I saw Shank’s body lying motionless beside the sofa on the floor.39

“Nooo! Who did this! Shank…how can you do this to me…” 40

Kylia started to cry beside his body. Slowly I descended and examined his body. He was killed in the same way as Bar and Anna. The cause was a shot on his right chest, a swift and painless death.41

“That means…the killer…would be…”42

“Yea it would leave all the suspicion to Scott for now”43

“Why… why would Scott do such a thing?” Kylia lamented.44

“Only God and he hold the answer I guess. The police will be arriving any time now”45

A few knocks on the front door and suddenly a few of the SW people entered. I saw Cyber Artist, Cactusjack and Andy. What surprised me was they were holding an unconscious Scott.4546

“You! Murderer!” Lori shouted hysterically at him.47

I held her back, saying "relax Lori! We need to hear form him as well. Where did you guys find him?”48

“He crashed his car a while ago. We found him near the next street so we decided to bring him here because this was the nearest he was lucky though it wasn’t any serious crash and he wasn’t hurt but what happened how come…Shanks is…”49

“It’s a long story. For now I need to hear what Scott got to say. And what are those that you’re carrying Artist?”50

“Oh, these are doughnuts… Bar asked me to come too actually but I already made an appointment with these guys so I said I’ll come later well bringing some food of course…supper anyone?” He said jokingly trying to lift the spirits up.51

“I’ll help you prepare them…I think everyone needs to cool down a bit now…it’s been an eventful night…” Kylia said while taking the doughnuts behind to the kitchen.52

“Put him here and wake him up I need to hear from him what he got to say”53

They placed Scott on the sofa and slapped his face to wake him up, after a while he started to stir up.54

“Ughh…where the hell I am…”55

“Scott listen to me, your words are now very important I need to know what exactly happened here. Did you kill Barbara, Anna and Shanks?”56

Everyone was taken aback by my straight forwardness. But Scott turned away and decides to remain quiet.57

“Scott the police will be here any time. It is best that you confess to us what you’ve did now before…”58

“I didn’t do anything. He said while looking away from the rest of us…”59

“LIAR!” Lori screamed while trying to attack him. I held her back.60

“Please stay calm Lori…we don’t need another case of killing here now. There have been enough sacrifices today. SW has lost many of its good Mods. We need the truth now.”61

“Have some doughnuts and water everyone…I think everyone is shaken by what happened but what we need to do now is to cool down and have a talk now” Kylia said while serving out the doughnuts water. Everyone sat down and a silent atmosphere hung in the air. I took the doughnut and started to eat slowly.62

“Scott we really need to hear from you now.”63

After a moment there was still silence, he decided not to speak yet. I offered a doughnut to Lori who was playing with her earring absent-mindedly now. She rejected it at first but after some persuasion she took it. Then I nudged her to offer one to Scott who was sitting near her. She gave me a very stinging glare but in the end she took one and shoves it towards Scott. Slowly he took it and ate it like the rest of us. All of a sudden, he started to hold his neck, as if choking on the doughnut and dropped the unfinished doughnut all of us was surprised and tried to help him but it was too late. He fell to the ground clutching his neck, he was dead. After examining him for a while, poison was the cause of his death.64

“Lori…you killed him...” Andy and Jack pointed their finger at her.65

“No I didn’t! How could I have killed him! Everyone ate the doughnut and I randomly picked one for him! How would I know which one is the poisoned one! Besides, Artist is the one who brought the doughnuts shouldn’t he be suspected too?!” She said in defense.66

“Alright break it up both of you. Either way he’s already dead now. An important witness or suspect is dead now. Don’t argue anymore. Besides if you think about it Artist couldn’t have been the killer. He bought some with the same flavor and I happened to eat the one with the same flavor as him. It wouldn’t be so coincidental that he happened to be the one who ate the poisoned one. It wouldn’t be Kylia too. Because she wouldn’t know who will take which doughnut later on.” I reasoned.67

Everyone agreed in silence. Deep down I was thinking how the killer managed to kill him in front of so many people. While taking such a huge risk the killer obviously did not want him to speak up. Suddenly flashes of images rushed into my brain.68

“Guys I’m going back upstairs to check out something. You guys could wait here for the police if you want.”69

“Can I accompany you?” Lori asked.70

“Of course you can silly girl.”71

The rest decided to stay and wait for the police. They had enough share of the murders tonight. While upstairs I saw a chess piece lying near the door. I picked it up. It was a knight piece with the word ‘K’ engraved into it. I looked at it for a moment before walking towards the broken window. I scanned the remaining broken pieces of glass that was stuck to the frame. I see. So that’s how it is.72

“Is something wrong?” Lori asked.73

“Nah Nothing…Lori, could you turn around for a moment?”74

“What for?”75

But she did it anyways. Suddenly I hugged her from behind and started to whisper in her right ear. Naturally, she tensed up her body for a moment but after hearing what I said she relaxed and I let go of my hands around her waist.76

“So that’s what both of you plan to do up here?” Kylia and Andy asked while standing by the door.77

“No we didn’t plan to do anything here” 78

I turned around trying to hide my blushing face. Lori walked towards the both of them calmly and convinced them of the same. Then we headed down to the living room once again. Within minutes after we sat down in silence at the sofa, the police came and got a throughout explanation of what happened. The head officer came to me after interrogating everyone.79

“Any leads S.I Wain?”80

“Well actually…”81

“Sir could we go home now, I’m really tired of all of this” Lori bawled.82

“Just give us a minute.”83

“Well actually I already figured out this case.”84

“Good. I’ll tell them to gather at the Living room.”85

Soon he gathered everyone in the living room I looked around at their blank faces. 86

“I guess everyone knows that this is a serious case of murder and I have figured out who is the killer.”
“Really? Who is he?!” Andy asked87

“Firstly judging from the way Barbara and Anna died, the forensic team reported that they died at around 9pm.”88

“That would be impossible right? You said that you heard two gunshots when you came and from your house to here it would have at least took half an hour to arrive here!” Artist said.89

“Yes I did hear two gunshots but the strange thing was I didn’t hear any screams or shouts after the gunshots. Don’t you guys find it weird? It’s normal for someone especially ladies to scream after they were shot. But I didn’t hear any. Besides if they were muffled, there should be cloth still in their mouth but I didn’t find any. It would not be logical as well for the killer to remove the cloth from their mouth before making his escape. Another clue is when I went to examine the window, there was no fabric strips being retained by the remains of the glasses on the frame. Strange isn’t it? If one person were to jump out of the window, even if he was wearing a leather jacket, a little of the leather remains will be stuck to the glass remains. Another mistake that the killer made was a normal person after jumping from a high place will need time to recover from the jump but when I looked out of the window which is only a few seconds gap away I didn’t even see any shadow of anyone running away. All of this proves one thing. The sounds I’ve heard when I was coming up was all made up. In another word they were recorded sounds. But if the killer was to use only 1 recorder to play the sound even if she set it at max volume it might be still inaudible because of the closed door. So to make sure of it, the killer used two recorders. One which was carefully and cleverly hidden at the corridor the other would be in the room itself so that I would have heard the voices. The only person who could have done that will be…you, Lori.”90

When I spoke of those words, a very shocked expression hung on their face, especially Lori’s.91

“What? Me? You doubt me Wain? You saw how I was unconscious and tied to the chair how could I have done those?”92

“ True Lori, but If you set it to record nothing at the start it would run without the need of any human operating it wouldn’t it? Logically speaking one of the recorders would be with you of course the other you retrieved it when you bent down in front of the door just now isn’t it? But I don’t doubt that you’re being tied up and unconscious. The bruise on the back of your head and the way you’re being tied I could tell that it was really someone who tied you up. Besides even with a gun it will be impossible for you to take down so many people. So you have an accomplice and that would be none other than you Kylia aren’t I right?”93

“What? Are you going out of your mind? Stop making false baseless deductions! You knew when I arrived here how could I have helped Lori?”94

“You both made a fatal mistake. The way Lori is tied up is too neat don’t you think so? Besides, a guy would not bother to tie his hostage neatly in such cases. You’ve been hiding in the living room when I came into the house. With shanks who isn’t dead yet. That is because I heard some sound while crawling below the windows of the living room to reach the back door. You kept him quiet there by some way and killed him with a gun most probably armed with a silencer during the gunshot sound that was played by the recorder. Then when you saw me going up, you quickly abandoned him and slowly made your way to the back, dispose of your weapon nearby and waited for a chance to slowly make your way to the front door. Yes sadly you said that I am charging you on baseless accusation. Well if you want proof, the tapes would be played at the police station as proof of your crimes.”95

“What?” both Lori and Kylia exclaimed.96

“Yes. Only Bar and I knew about this. She had already expected her death before this and she requested me to equip this house with cams all over just two days ago. She chose to hide the reasons why she did this but out of respect for her I helped her. Now, why did you kill them?”97

“Yes. I’m the one who planned all of these at the start but I didn’t expect the cameras. I thought we had a perfect alibi. You don’t know what kind of training and work Bar and Anna gave us everyday. It was really torturous. Everyday on top of my daily work I still have to work overtime because of the work that they piled for us. We requested so many times for them to grant us leniency on our workload but to no avail. Worst still, that time she said that if I could not handle the heat of the work then quit being as a Mod. She said she would do fine without me and she would easily find a replacement for me. She knew how much I love the site and despite all of those she threw those words at me, words that stings like venom slowly corrupting inside me. So we decided to take revenge on them. As for Shanks and Scott it wasn’t in our plan to kill them but since they overheard our quarrel we decided to silence the both of them.”98

“How did you kill Scott then?” Artist asked.99

“Let me answer that for you. She mixed a little poison that reacts strongly with alcohol when eaten. The place will be on her earrings. I confirmed this when I hugged you from behind Lori and whispered in you ears. I took the chance to confirm my doubts about it and yes your earring smells of some unknown chemicals mixed with alcohol. That poison will be harmless to the human skin but once it’s eaten it will cause death almost in an instant. I saw her touching her earring before eating the doughnut and when she took the doughnut I offered to her she used another hand to eat it so it was to make sure that any doughnut she took for Scott will be poisonous. Besides I think even without me nudging she would have offered 1 for Scott either way.”100

“Yes, Scott’s escape was out of our calculation but before that I’ve already punctured one of his tires so we figured that he would have died in a car crash. Unfortunately he did not but we were glad that you guys brought him back so that we could silence him for real now.”101

“Actually both of you have been wrong about Bar and Anna I believe. She left a dying message for the both of you actually. See this piece of sudoku? At first I thought that it was just some junk as well. But after reading it a while I finally realized its true meaning. Take the first box as example, see the word K on top if it? And she circled number 6 in this box. In chess there are two units that start with K. One is the King and the other is knight. 6 refer to the letter. In short, the only possible letter that she meant is T from knight. The second box letter is a B which stands for bishop and she circled the number 4 which is the letter H. And there are total 9 boxes here together and it will make up the word “The pictur” which I think she refers to this portrait.”102

After speaking I went over to the portrait it was a portrait of 2 angels basking down their golden rays to a group of children. The golden word shines below it “Pictura Angelica” I pressed the words and it opened up a short compartment which contained a book and a letter. On top of it were written for Lorika and Kylia. I handed the letter and the book to them which made them tear after reading it probably regretting every single bit of what they have done but their crimes won’t go unpunished. Although I did not read the letter at all but one could guess that all these while the reason why Bar and Anna did these to them, they wanted them to take over their position when they were gone. It was simply a test of endurance set by them to test their patience and their loyalty to SW a pity that it went to naught. I wondered how tomorrow meeting would turn out and the future of SW with having so many mods dissapearing but I believe the fate and destiny lies in the hands of those who believe and is loyal to it. As I gazed outside the window, as tears from heaven falling softly to the earth maybe the God’s are crying for their sins as well. As I walked towards my car Andy stopped me and asked.103

“I’m curious what did you whisper to her when we caught you hugging her in the room”104

I merely smiled and answered105

“I simply said, Relax I’m not going to do anything to you”106