The Garden of Eden
Chapter One
I wake up, and stare blearily-eyed at the clock that sits on my Frozen bedside table. According to it, it's 11:15 am.
"Holy Nook!" I curse as I run a hand through my messy short brown hair. I was supposed to be up an hour ago. I swiftly change out of my purple and gold fleece dress into a green fur-lined coat, sighing as I check and empty my inventory into my Frozen dresser. It's a pity that I have to leave behind a lot of fun stuff, such as: my fishing rod, my net, my axe, my shovel and my beans, which I feed to the many birds that flock around my camping site. Instead, I pack a bunch of boring things, like my fluffy white dressing gown, my pink slippers, my ballroom gown, a ballroom mask and summer clothes, which consists of a pale green, lacy and loose-fitting summer dress (the King hates it when us children wear anything that's tight).
To be honest, the only dresses that I don't mind wearing are my fleece dress and my old, torn overalls, which go with a faded brown-striped shirt, and that's only because they are comfy and practical. Normally, I just wear a pair of worn-out denim jeans and a white tee with the Nintendo logo on it.
I run towards Shampoodle's so quickly, that I'm breathless for about several minutes, until I manage to gasp out the words "please can you style and dye my hair for me?".
"Sure thing, sugar. Just sit down on that seat in front of the machine." Usually, I disobey her and sometimes even run around the salon for a few hours, but today, I decide to obey her as I don't have much time.
Five minutes later, I have light-blonde hair that looks nearly white, styled in a bob that's completed with a 'cute' fringe. I hate it: I'd rather go back to my dull, lifeless bird's nest than look like some posh brat (also, the fringe makes me look goofy and young for my age: I'm fourteen for Nook's sakes; not five!) which sounds funny in my head, as I am a posh brat. Seriously. I live in a mansion that's complete with more rooms than I could ever want or even need, all of my clothes are way too fancy, and I probably have more money than Tom Nook himself. I hate it though. When I see the other villagers running after each other, playing hide-and-seek, fishing in the sea, rivers and ponds, I envy them, though they envy me. And my 'family'.
Chapter Two
Speaking of my family, my brother, Lord, is here. Stepping elegantly off the train, careful not to fall onto the tracks (not that I've ever done this before), he approaches me. Although we are brother and sister, we look (and act) nothing alike. His hair is naturally light-blond, and his eyes are naturally a cold, stony grey (mine are green). His skin looks pale, like he's never been outside in the sun before but, my skin is always rosy from either the sun, or the cold. My heart rises suddenly to my throat as I see that he's wearing black.
"The King is dead?" I whisper. He mutters something that I can't hear. It's most likely a string of swear words.
"No," he sighs, "black's a good colour for absorbing and emitting heat radiation, or so Blathers tells me."
Ouch, I think to myself. He's obviously insulting me: I never bothered to attend school. I preferred to play and fish and hunt.
Instead of telling him to 'reset off', I smile frostily as if he hasn't just burned me. "Shall we depart, brother?"
"Indeed we shall." He escorts me like he's supposed to to my train station, even though I know a dozen shortcuts to get there. We catch the train on time, luckily for us, and we leave for the Garden of Eden.
Chapter Three
Nobody's there when we arrive. At least, they aren't waiting outside the train station. This is weird, I think to myself, but I don't tell Lord. I try looking around for the villagers while we make our way to the King's castle. They aren't anywhere.
"Lord, this is getting pretty weird." I shiver.
"Have faith, sister: I won't let anything happen to you, I promise." Promises can be broken.
We carry on walking, sticking to the grassy path that leads through the town, until we reach a an orange brick castle that has a yellow stone roof. Lord opens the door, letting me go inside first, trying to be the perfect gentleman.
However, that's when I finally see everyone. They're gathered around a part of the carpet in the main room, their backs blocking us from seeing what they're seeing. I have a fairly good idea, though, and suddenly, everything makes sense: the King is dead. Well, that's obviously just an assumption; I don't know for definite, so I decide to find out.
"Hey, Skylar," I say, turning round to one of my family members that I actually like. She turns round. She's quite pretty, with coral coloured eyes and long golden hair. "What happened?", I ask.
"Isn't it obvious?", she hisses, moving backwards so that I can see what they are all looking at. It's the King. He's been killed. No, murdered, assassinated. There's several other words I could use to describe this massacre. Where his head should be, there's just bloody flesh. He was always a man who enjoyed his Sunday dinners. He seems to have shrivelled in death. His skin was normally ruddy and sun-tanned, but now it looks like chalk. And there is blood everywhere. I try not to run away. I look at my brother. He's surprised. At least, everyone else probably thinks he's surprised. Me? I might have never attended school, but I know my brother better than he thinks. He's obviously planning something. He clears his throat. Oh God. Here we go: he's gonna make some speech about how close him and the king were.
"My Princesses. My Prince," he begins, addressing the King's grand (or perhaps great-grand) children. "My mansion is yours. My town is yours. I want to help you as much as I can during this time of grief." Speech over, he quickly removes his gentlemanly guise, and dons the guise of my insensitive douchebag brother. "Also, we need to appoint a new monarch. With the King gone, uprisings will begin among the villagers." The others mutter their agreement.
Skylar's husband, Jase winks at me. It happens so quickly that it is nearly unnoticeable. He's as muscular as you can possibly hope to be in Animal Crossing. He has the same golden hair and coral eyes as his wife. He's definitely what some of my villagers call a 'dreamboat'. Both him and his wife are nice to me. Well, they are frosty towards me, but considerably less than everyone else is.
Suddenly, a young servant boy scurries up the basement stairs. He's wearing a patched shirt and matching trousers. His shoes are also patched from wear and tear.
"Princess," he says, averting his gaze from her and the King's corpse. "Your great-grandfather has left behind a list of tasks for all of you who are over the age of eighteen to complete." The Princess looks intrigued. Actually, so do all of them.
"And what, pray tell, is the first task?" Princess asks. We all know the purpose of this task: to see who inherits the throne and the King's bells.
"A good king is strong. For this task, you must fill all of the flower beds. One participant at a time. Whoever is the fastest, shall compete in the next task. Whoever is over eighteen and wishes to participate, must meet at my own personal refuge outdoors." The boy takes a breath, "I think his Majesty means his front garden."
Everyone apart from me and Princess's little brother and sister leave the castle to compete. I feel lonely. In a few hours, they will compete this task, and by the end of the week there will be a new King or Queen. I hope that either Skylar or Jase will win: they're more down to earth than the others.
Chapter Four
Currently, I'm faced with two options: I can either stay here, browse the library, bug the servants for food or just for the pure heck of it, and play with the Princess's younger brother and sister. Or I can follow the others. Spy on them. Find out who's going to win this task. I decide to disguise myself in my overalls. I twist my hair into two braids and slip off my pumps. I look like an ordinary villager girl, innocent, unsuspecting, almost sweet. Although slightly too neat.
I sigh and slip out of the castle. I then hide behind a large tree. Everyone looks determined, but Lord looks overdetermined. I suddenly have a horrible feeling about my brother. The Princess is the youngest person competing: she's only just had her eighteenth birthday. This itself seems suspicious. I wonder who would murder the King? I think to myself.
"Right, you lot. I'm going to start with the youngest person here, which is you, Your Highness," the boy says, facing the Princess, but not looking at her. Instead he's looking down at his feet. I wonder why he starts with the youngest, until I realise that it's Royal Protocol. I want to follow them, but I decide to stay with the others. They might know something that I don't. I watch the boy lead the Princess away to fill the flower beds, knowing that my gut instinct has to be right. It is.
"So, Lord," Jase drawls in a sleepy voice. He yawns before continuing. "Why did you wanna take part in this thing? I thought that you were for a quiet, peaceful, responsibility free life." Lord bristles at this. I can tell that if he had a toy hammer or something, he would probably thump Jase on the head with it. Or not: while Jase is muscular, Lord is scrawny and gangly.
"If you must know, I just felt like it was my duty. My father would have done the same." Father would never do something like this! I nearly step in front of the tree and verbally incinerate that little Nook, but then I remember my plan.
"I knew your father. He was a good man." Skylar says suddenly, nearly crying. "It's a pity his son isn't like him at all." Lord gets so angry that I can actually see steam erupting from his ears. Then the boy returns, the Princess returns to the castle, and it's now Lord's turn. I watch him saunter (well, it is Animal Crossing, so I have to assume that that's what he's doing, although it makes him look like he's trying to show off something) and he follows the boy. I don't follow them: I wonder if Skylar and Jase are hiding something.
"That poor girl," Skylar says pitingly, shaking her head. She's obviously talking about the Princess. Personally, I thought that she looked exhausted, but at the same time, victorious.
"I know," Jase says in this sweet, comforting voice, "but she cannot know. Not right now, at least. We'll wait until the tasks are over." What in the name of Nintendo are they planning?! I can only presume that they are going to murder the Princess. Seriously, I never thought that they were regicidal maniacs, but what if they killed the King? I gasp suddenly when I realise this. Then, I see the two of them coming towards me...
Chapter Five
"The Nook're you doing here?!" Skylar exclaims when she sees me.
"I know what you're planning, and it's not gonna happen." The two of them exchange a look of surprise. I knew that the two of them plotted to kill the King. "The King's dead because of you two."
Jase steps forwards. "Seriously, you think that we killed the King?" He chuckles softly. "Ain't got no beef with the guy. Neither has Skylar." My mind is reeling.
"So, who killed him then?"
"We don't know. Both the Princess and Lord have pretty good reasons for wanting the poor guy dead." Skylar explains.
"What about the younger children? You know, the Princess's younger brother and sister." I insist. It seems really suspicious that her great-granddad gets murdered right after she comes of age. Also, Lord's my brother: he might be mean to me, but I don't want him to be guilty of this.
"We haven't actually thought about them. I suppose that a kid could be a regicidal psychopath." Jase says, thoughtfully. "And we can't cross you off the list either, Lady." This makes me angry. Why the hell would I kill the King. It's not like I can become Queen: I'm underage. I obviously don't say this out loud cause it'll make me sound pretty suspicious, like I've actually been thinking about it. I haven't, I swear.
"Exactly," Skylar says, "we have to work together to solve this mystery. The young Prince and Princess wouldn't have had much to gain from the King's death, but they could have been asked to murder the King on their sister's behalf. We're sorry for doubting you, my Lady." She adds, looking in my direction, but not exactly at me. I don't know exactly how I feel, but I've never been called 'my Lady' before. Even though it's my 'title'.
Suddenly, we can hear somebody muttering angrily. I quickly leap inside the castle. After opening the door, obviously. Otherwise I'd currently be in a hell of a lot of pain. I act like I've just been on a walk and I manage to find the younger Princess and her brother.
They're playing in the back yard, which the King decorates just for us kids. It's a bright and colourful area. A rainbow screen is displayed at the end of the garden by the door. There's a plastic dollhouse that includes a smiling plastic family who seem to lead a boring life, a couple of rocking horses (me and Lord had arguments over the only rocking horse as kids, so the King had to buy a new one) that seem to be smiling as if they are planning something. As kids, they looked adorable and a little goofy. Now, they look like something from a horror film, grotesque and hell-bent on mass destruction. Their smiles show their perfect white teeth. It reminds me of a quote from Little Red Riding Hood: "Oh, Grandma; what big teeth you have!". There's also a little craft table that was recently added in a new update. It's unused as nobody here is interested in anything remotely to do with craft.
A big metal swing with a plastic seat swings in the wind. Next to it, a plastic roundabout spirals sickeningly. The scene resembles something from a horror movie.
Everything in the King's back yard is brand new and squeaky clean. There's certainly no risk of any child falling off the blue and yellow elephant slide or suffocating in the multicoloured ball pool. There's an actual pool as well. Actually, it's just a small child's paddling pool that has a yellow smiling rubber duck that has an orange beak bobbing merrily in it. What is it about toy animals smiling? The younger Princess and her brother are playing a dull game of dolls with the little house. I've always hated it that the carefully molded figures seem boring. They are always pink and plastic and pretty. Much like the Princess and her family.
"Hey there. What're you doing?" I ask in my friendliest voice, sitting on the flowery ground next to them.
"He's the mayor, and he's going to build a reset center." The Prince says, gesturing to the figure he's holding. "Does your town have a reset center?" Such an innocent question. I want to reply with the truth, that no, it doesn't. Instead I lie. I have to.
"Yes, it does." The two of them look wide-eyed at me.
"Woah!" They exclaim in unison and look at me as if I'm K.K. Slider or Jingle.
"Yes, but it's honestly not that great. The Resettis are constantly on my back about not saving and they get to monitor my game." I only know about this as I recently read a blog about it. I clear my throat. "So, I'm sorry for your loss." They quickly look down at their feet at the same time.
"I want to find out who killed him." The Prince says in a hollow voice. "So that I can kill them." I'm surprised at this: the King was a pacifist and believed that all forms of violence are wrong.
"Two wrongs never make a right." I lecture.
"No, but they do make life interesting." Lord says, leaning against the swing. "My Lady," he continues, standing, looking downwards at the brightly coloured flowers. "I have never liked you. I hope that you burn in hell." He looks across at the Prince and his sister briefly before walking back inside. Wow, that was unexpected. I always knew that he didn't like me, but hating me? Gee, I wonder what I've done to him lately.
"I wonder who's been eliminated?" I ask myself. The younger Princess looks up at me.
"Didn't you hear? Skylar has been eliminated. Jase is obviously heart-broken without her." She says, as if a new monarch is elected every day. Like regicide is normal. I nearly laugh at these thoughts, but manage to stop myself.
I think to myself for a while, thinking about Skylar and Jase's conversation earlier. Lord's creepiness and how the servants don't seem to be the slightest bit bothered that the resetting King died. I've ruled the younger Princess and the Prince off my list as all they seem to know is that their great-grandfather has died. Then I remember that I haven't talked to the servants about the murder yet.
I have to be careful: the murderer is still here. I can tell. I feel like I'm being followed by someone or something. I have this feeling of dread and terror. It's most likely about the tasks going on.
The younger Princess is right: Skylar has been eliminated, unfortunately. She would make an excellent Queen.
Chapter Six
I hear laughter from the basement as I enter the castle. The King's corpse is still in the brightly-coloured living room, slowly decomposing. I walk down the plain wooden stairs and see something that my brother would definitely not approve of. Some of the servants are drinking mugs of sparkling cider. Others are drinking coffee. They are gathered together in one group, telling stories about the King.
"And," a man wearing a apron says, "the King may be dead, but long may we remember him." The servants stop laughing. The atmosphere has once again become solemn. The rest of the servants repeat him. Suddenly, a girl of eighteen stands and holds her coffee cup aloft. "Well, we won't if we keep drinking!" Everybody laughs heartily. No-one notices me. I lean against the wall and smile. The servants clearly loved their King, so who could have killed him? I decide to ponder that later. I might not have been one of the King's servants, but I feel like I should say something.
"May I tell a story about the King?" I ask timidly. The servants splutter when they see who I am. "I'm not going to hurt any of you: I just want to mourn the King."
The man who spoke when I entered the basement nods. "Go on then, but make it snappy." I inhale.
"When I first came here a few years ago, I couldn't believe how beautiful this town is. I wanted to run amongst the flowers, but my brother and my father both told me that I must act like a Lady, whatever that means. When I met the King, he asked me what I wanted to do while I was in his town, and when I said 'I want to run around your town', he chuckled and let me, provided that I did not tear any of his flowers." A few servants chuckle merrily at that. "And so, the inevitable happened: one of his flowers tore. To make matters worse, the Princess arrived. Within a matter of minutes, she managed to convince me that the King was going to execute me when he found out. The King eventually found me sobbing and laughed at me when I pleaded for my life. He simply planted a new flower to take its place and told me that flowers could easily be replaced and that it was nothing to worry about." I hear a few sighs at the back of the throng of servants. Others are simply chuckling and the rest are busy drinking their drinks.
"Well," one of the servants says sleepily, "I'd better go announce the next task." She drunkenly stumbles up the stairs, moaning about how much her head hurts.
Chapter Seven
"So, the next task involves talking to...animals?" Lord asks. He's clearly disgruntled. I take another sip of my coffee to hide my smile.
"Well done!" The servant girl claps her hands sarcastically, "the little lord can understand basic instructions!" Lord looks enraged. For the record, the task is to make friends with three of the villagers. Whoever can do it in the fastest time goes onto the next task. "However, if any of you want out, you just have to say the word." The servant says solemnly, looking at us all. "Also, if any of you want to confess to murdering the King, now's a good time to confess." She's clearly drunk as hell if she thinks that any of them murdered the King.
Lord might be a mighty pain in the ass sometimes, but murder isn't really his forte: he'd mess up somewhere or confess to everyone in this room that he murdered the King, like he did one time with that tarantula.
The Princess might have a lot to gain from it, but she's blunt. If the King managed to annoy her, she'd probably tell him to reset off. She might have a lot to gain from the King's murder, but he's her own great-grandpa. Family never murders family in all the murder mystery novels I've read.
And Jase? Oh, please. The guy's like a teddy bear, for all he's so strong and 'manly'. Murder isn't really his thing anyway. I'm thinking back to what he and Skylar said earlier, how none of them had any 'beef with the King.' Obviously they meant that they were on good terms with the King and had no issues about his being the current monarch. So this leaves me with one massive question: why would someone murder the King?
Lord clears his throat. "I have something to say," he begins. The Princess and Jase turn around along with the rest of us. They were already halfway to the door. "I assassinated the King," he whispers in this wavery voice that doesn't sound like it belongs to him at all. His voice is usually clipped and precise, but the whispery-wavery voice sounds like it belongs to a young boy.
"Then you shall be punished. You are a resetting murderer. You murdered my great-grandad and therefore, you committed treason." The Princess said, her voice venomous, turning round to face the servant. "Take this little boy down to the basement until either me or Jase win." The Princess orders. Someone gasps: she has no right ordering us around; she's not the Queen yet. But, she is the King's great-granddaughter, so the servant girl escorts him to the basement. My head is reeling. True, he might have been a bit hostile and ambitious, but I never thought that he was capable of murder. Then, the Princess turns to face me.
"You are his flesh and blood. You might have helped him commit this act of regicide and treason." She calls over the servant. "Take her down to the basement as well." I look at the girl pleadingly. She's about twelve years old and should, by rights, be with her family and have never met any of us. She gives the Princess such a look of contempt that I expect it to wither her.
"I refuse, Your Highness. You said this girl 'might have' helped her brother. Well I say that she might be innocent. The innocent are never punished." She walks away, but before she can, two men that I've never seen before grab her and drag her downstairs.
They return for me and my heart's in my throat again, but the Princess shakes her head. "Leave the girl: even I can show mercy sometimes."
"Now that that's cleared up, I see no need to proceed with these tasks. I'm the King's great-granddaughter, so the throne is mine. My coronation shall be tomorrow and I expect all of you to attend." The Princess announces. How the Nook can she get away with this?
"And what if we don't?" Jase asks boldly.
"I will find you and kill you. Is that understood?" We all nod at that. The Princess dismisses us.
Chapter Eight
My head still reeling, I follow Skylar and Jase. Not because I think my brother's innocent and that they killed the King (on the contrary: I believe that he's guilty) but because their apartment is right by mine. In a recent update, the city was introduced, and with the city came skyscraper apartments. I get into the lift with them and watch how lovey-dovey they seem to be, whispering stuff into each other's ears and giggling like two naughty children. The lift in our skyscraper is pretty plush as we live in the nicest skyscraper in the city, and the two of them can't seem to leave each other alone. It drives me so mad, that as soon as we leave the lift, I walk over to my apartment without saying goodbye to them. Alright, I'll admit it. It's not the most teenage-like 'I hate you' meltdown ever, but this is Animal Crossing, so slamming doors, playing my music extremely loud and swearing isn't really an option.
My apartment is just the way I like it. It's full of plants and there's a goldfish on top of my low table in front of my small TV and my retro VCR. The wallpaper looks like it's a garden and the floor looks like it's a meadow. A cassette player is playing my favourite K.K. song: Spring Blossoms, which is a slow, soothing melody. My plain small single bed is tucked away in a corner of the room along with my pear dresser.
Next to that is my bookshelf which has all of my fantasy books in it, like Lord of the Rings and a few fanfictions that I wrote myself. They're mainly about a girl who finds out that she's a warrior and travels around the world, defeating evil. A lot of her villains sound like my brother, and the rest of the heroes sound like the King, Skylar and Jase put together. I grab one of them at random and read through it, sitting on my azelea stool. In this one, she goes to space and finds aliens, but instead of killing them like the Emperor of Doom does, she makes friends with them. Reading through it, I realise that its tone is childish. I used to dream of being smart, grown-up and brave like her, but now I realise that it's probably not going to happen. The Princess is probably going to try and fake some kind of evidence that I murdered her great-grandfather and then I'll be in the basement, along with my brother, until I die.
I start crying, but I muffle the sound of it in my pillow. I'm crying for everything: the King, my pathetic dream and my brother, for whatever reason. I stop crying, get changed into my pyjamas and slowly, I fall asleep.
Chapter Nine:
"Here comes the Queen!" Another servant says. I don't quite recognise him, but he's young for a servant: he's about seven or eight years old. We all repeat him like parrots.
"Nook bless our Queen!" The boy yells. The room echoes with his voice, and then ours. The Queen smiles regally and waves in the same fashion. She walks towards the golden throne along with two men that I don't know, but am certain I've seen them before.
"Thank you all for being here," she begins, "now, it is only common courtesy that I introduce these men standing beside me," like vultures ready to pounce, both are standing at either end of the throne, "the man on my left is Pir, and the man on my right is Anha." Both men glower. They are muscular and wear black singlets to show off their biceps, black pants and black boots, like a uniform. "Don't be afraid: they are not going to hurt you," she purrs, "but, there is something I would like to say," she glances at both Pir and Anha before staring at us, "I am the one who murdered the King."
Everyone gasps loudly. Some scream. A few look like they're about to run, until the Queen raises a hand, silencing everyone. "I was not alone. Pir and Anha helped me, but so did my brother and sister. Come here, Arnold. Come here, Lacey." She calls. Her brother and sister approach her warily like stray cats. "I'm not going to hurt either of you, I swear." She whispers something to Pir, who then leaves the throne room. Anha then pulls a black katana out of his inventory and stabs both of the children at the same time. They're both impaled on the blade like a kebab. Then Anha starts stabbing the servants. The sound of screaming fills the room and blood stains the carpet and people's clothes. The stench of death invades the room. Pir returns with Lord and drags him towards me.
"Say goodbye to your brother," he says in this growl that stinks of cheese. He impales my brother with his katana. I watch as his body is jerked off the blade and slumps to the floor and as his pale eyes glaze over.
Then, just when I think I'm about to die, someone shoves something over my head and drags me. I'm frozen in terror, so I can't cry out. I just let the person dragging me continue. I know exactly where we're heading to: the kitchen. Then the person dragging me stops and turns around to face me. It's Jase. Skylar's okay: she managed to escape before the bloodbath and is sitting at the servants' table.
"Get these on." Jase says, thrusting a moldy looking dress at me. I raise a hand to my hair. "It's okay: you're wearing a mask that'll cover both your hair and your face." Skylar's also wearing the servants' clothes as well as Jase.
I do as he says, and together the three of us sprint towards the train station like there's no tomorrow. I look behind me at the castle as it grows smaller in the distance, and inhale the perfumed smell of the flowers as I leave the Garden of Eden.
The End?