Alive At Crepusculum ✓ [TPL Book One]

VIII

Rise and shine! A bright and sunny Wednesday came over the horizon, the best so far in April. No one could have anticipated the horrors awaiting in the news. A wealthy man had been poisoned and then stabbed in the stomach, gutted, and had those guts stuffed in his mouth. It couldn't have been more gruesome than that, but it was. His eyes were found in his stomach cavity and a blood circle was drawn on his forehead.

To the police of Tupper, Penwood State, it was a nightmare come true. Some of them had even been to Lwendolen and knew the sinister shadows that once lurked there and left blood circles on their victims. The stories of the notorious Red Circle, an assassin organization that once spread throughout the world, were on their lips and their minds, but they kept their mouths shut. Their job was to gather evidence and assure the public they would capture whoever did this.

But the evidence was a whole other story, and some things just didn't match up. How could it be that the wife and four children didn't even notice what was going on? On top of that, the wife was sleeping next to her husband who had been bleeding and gutted most of the night! How did she not notice? Something was horrendously amiss, but the evidence was insufficient. They needed more. The police had to tell the public. Did anyone know of Geoffrey Brews' enemies? What about witnesses? Surely, someone would have heard screaming and the slaves couldn't be trusted.

And so, with permission from the police, newspaper houses printed extras and made newspaper girls and boys hand it out to anyone who hadn't heard the horrors yet. The description of the crime scene didn't tell of all the horrors though. It would have traumatized the entire country. Unidentified things were found on the rug. One of which the wife stepped on by mistake with her barefoot, and another of which the dog ate. The rest were molded into the rug and it didn't help that the rug was a pale pink color, making it hard to see if there were still smaller pieces in there.

Whatever they were.

Police were too horrified to investigate the pieces any further, so they swept everything into the bin to dispose of it. The only evidence needed was the body and the blood circle. The police debated, heavily, whether to disclose the information about the blood circle, in the end, they decided not to.

But as all things "disclosed" would have it, somehow it leaked, and the public knew it had to be the notorious Red Circle from Lwendolen. There had been many other "Red Circle" organizations, but the Lwendolen one had left a terrifying footprint on the minds of many. Tourists who had been to Lwendolen began talking and gossiping amongst each other in fear and in morbid fascination.

It was this day and era that people found morbid things utterly fascinating. Even just thirty years ago, during the time when Queen Victoria was mourning the death of her husband, the afterlife was discussed in the open. Post-mortem photography was a "healthy" trend. Taking life-like photographs of loved ones after their deaths, why Victorians were fascinated with death! Murders were rife in Lwendolen back in the day and all killings were described in disturbing details with gruesome sketches of the victims. Such old Lwendolen newspapers like the Nimrod Times from the city of Nimrod, made good souvenirs and could be found sold at a couple dallen in black markets in the alleys of some U.A. states.

To this day, people were still horrified and fascinated at the same time.

"How horrible! But how exactly did he die?"

"Gutted like a fish, I heard."

"His eyeballs were in his stomach!"

"Gives me a shiver. I won't be able to sleep tonight. Did you hear, the blood red circle?"

"The Red Circle!"

"Why Geoffrey Brews? What has he ever done to anyone?"

"We must pray! Everyone, we must pray. Oh, the demons' work it is!"