Amicus Curiae (Ace Attorney Fanfiction)

Chapter 3: Turnabout Saviour (Part 1)

Turnabout Saviour

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear."-Ambrose Redmoon

15 years ago...

April 6-10:43 AM
O'Wisp Beach

"I can't believe you woke up so late, Albert! If we're not careful, the cave tour will start without us, and Cornelia's been looking forward to this all week," Mum was complaining to Dad in the front of the car. I put down my camera, which I'd brought along to take pictures, and looked at the brochure about William's Cave, which was where we were going. There were rumours that an explorer called William O'Wisp had been trapped there long ago and his ghost had gone crazy and it still haunted the cave. Not that I believed in that, of course. Apparently the ghost story was popular with people because the brochure claimed that "many people have experienced the paranormal phenomenon themselves-even the most sceptical of people have been convinced after visiting William's Cave-or rather, William's Grave!"

I frowned as I saw that the beach was already crowded with people, especially near the cave. We were late! After spending a few minutes finding a car park we walked through the crowd towards the cave. There was a stand near the entrance where the tours began. There was a man standing behind the counter. He was wearing a shirt with a picture of a ghost flying out of the cave on it. The ghost was grinning, as if glad to be free after years of being stuck in the cave. "Hi! You're a little late, but welcome to William's Cave, the best site for exploring and/or ghost hunting for miles around!"
"Hi, sorry we're a bit late. We're the Chime family. We booked a cave tour," Dad explained.
"Oh, it's fine. We're running a couple of extra tours today anyway since today is the 110th anniversary of the day that William O'Wisp got lost in this very cave!" He said the last few words in a spooky voice. "You're the last family to arrive for the 11:30 tour. Now, I'll just get your names, in case anything happens during the tour...like the GHOST coming out and scaring you to death! Or maybe he'll possess you! Well, okay, that hasn't happened in the ten or so years we've been running these tours....but who knows? Today COULD be the day, you never know!"

After our names were written down, we were directed to some benches where we were supposed to wait for the tour guide. There were a few other families waiting with us-most of them included kids that looked younger than me. Most of the kids were talking excitedly and holding their torches and turning them on and off (we'd bought one on the way to the beach). Finally, the tour guide arrived. He was holding a clipboard and a pen. His name badge said "Guy Duthru, William's Cave Tours".

"Hi, everyone! My name's Guy. Are you ready to explore?" He asked us all. "YES!" We all chorused.
"That's good," he replied. "Now, I'll just do the roll call to check that everybody's here. We'll do that a couple of times during the tour so that, if somebody gets lost, we'll know about it." He told us to say "here" when we heard our names called, like at school. After the roll call was finished, Guy opened the backpack he had on his back and took out a hat that had a light on it, and switched it on. "Has everybody got their torches?" He asked. "If not, don't worry-I've got spares." After Guy had made sure that every family had at least one torch, he led us to the mouth of the cave.

"Alright everybody, before we begin, I'll just run through a few things. The tour will begin in a little while. It'll take an hour and a half, and unfortunately, caves don't come equipped with toilets, so if anybody needs to go, there's some toilets over there." He pointed to a small building nearby. "Now, I'll give you these whistles. If you get lost, stay where you are, blow the whistle and flash your torch so we can find you." He gave out the whistles and we practised blowing them. Finally he said, "Alright everyone. It's time to start exploring William's Cave! Turn on your torches, stay close and follow me!"