A/N: Finally got the next chapter up. Kim and Ron enter the Dark Wood Courthouse where they soon learn a lot more than they could have imagined. What do they learn? Read on to find out!
Disclaimer: My OC characters are all that I own
Chapter 13: The Truth
Kim and Ron walked up the steps of the abandoned courthouse, most of it covered by vines, branches, and various other plants. The courthouse parking was pretty much almost covered up by grass and weeds, and most of the asphalt was cracked and broken apart from years of decay from the elements. The large doors were shut tight with cracks running down the wood, and its handles were chained shut with heavy metal chains and a rusty old lock.
"This lock looks pretty old and rusty. I think I can break it off" Ron said upon inspecting the lock.
He grabbed the lock and then crushed it using his mystical monkey powers, then slid the chains off the old rusty handles and pulled the double doors open. The hinges squeaked and groaned from years of abandonment as Ron opened the doors. The inside of the building was brightly lit since the light from the sun shined through the cracked windows, so it was much easier to see inside the place unlike the old police station. Once Kim and Ron fully entered the building, they found it in okay condition, except for some cracked walls and torn carpeting from broken glass and tree branches that had fallen in through the windows. Ceiling extended up about eleven feet which had vines growing in from above and through the light fixtures half hanging from rotted wires in the ceiling, their bulbs all shattered and broken.
"This place sure has seen better days" Kim exclaimed upon seeing the mess the old courthouse was in.
"Well, ten years of abandonment will do that to any building," Ron replied. "Lets check the courtroom. Maybe we'll find something there".
"Those wooden doors in front of us should lead us there" Kim pointed out at two large wooden doors in front of them.
Ron walked up and pulled them open, causing the hinges to creak and groin as the old doors opened up. Dust also fell from above as they entered the large courtroom, and to their surprise, it was in much better condition than the police station had been. However, the carpet was faded in many areas, and some of the witness booths had cracks in them from being abandoned and left alone for so long. The lights were all dark as expected, but the sunlight pouring in from the old windows lit the whole room up, giving Kim and Ron a full view of everything. The courtroom smelled musty, almost like an old garage, which they guessed was from some of the vines coming in from the corners of some of the windows.
"This place is pretty empty. Think we'll find anything useful in here?" Ron asked, looking around the place.
"This courthouse is pretty big, so there's bound to be something here that we can use for clues," Kim replied, glancing at a small door near the judges stand. "Let's try the judges office first".
The two of them headed for the door, their footsteps echoing in the abandoned courthouse. It felt quite eerie being the only two individuals alone in this abandoned town. Ron was constantly alert for anything strange, and Kim felt uneasy, constantly wondering if they were being watched by someone or something unseen. Kim was pretty sure that was just her unease talking, but given everything that had happened the other day, she couldn't help but feel a rush of fear whenever something creaked or groaned around her and Ron.
Ron pulled the door to the judges old office and found it dimly lit by the sunlight that poured through a set of old closed curtains near the window behind an old desk with a ratty old leather chair which had a few rips in it here and there. Kim slid the curtain open and light poured into the room, lighting it up completely. This room was a bit of a mess, but not like the police chiefs office. The office was rectangle shaped with the window and desk being at the end facing the door, and on the left and right sides of the desk near the window were two large filing cabinets with four of the doors opened up. Some old files were strown about near the cabinets which Kim and Ron guessed were old case files.
"Let's check the filing cabinets out along with the desk. There might be something useful in them we can use" Kim said, then began searching the file cabinets to her left.
Ron began searching the ones on the right, starting with the bottom drawer. There were two large files containing thick stapled piles of paper which Ron took out and inspected. The first one was labeled "TODD FARCUS CASE", and it immediately caught Ron's attention.
"Yo, Kim! I just found something on the police chief, and its a case file" Ron announced, pulling the large stack of papers out of the file.
"Really?" Kim asked, turning her attention towards the stack of papers in Ron's hand.
"Yeah, not sure what the other one is though" Ron replied, handing Kim the stack of papers.
He took out the second file and took a look at it. It was labeled "EVIDENCE PHOTOS". Ron emptied the contents of the folder on the floor in front of him and made a very gruesome discovery. They were photos of what appeared to be crime scenes, and they were incredibly graphic. There were multiple images of young women chained up in what looked akin to something like an underground bunker, and they appeared to have been beaten, tortured, and even butchered into pieces. Others were of families that had been murdered in their own homes or in other random outdoor areas that Ron didn't recognize. There were tons and tons of these, but then he came across an image of someone he immediately recognized. It was a photo of Ridley's mother, Sarah Farcus, and she looked almost unrecognizable unlike in those tapes he and Kim saw earlier.
Both her forelegs had been hacked off above her knees, and she had been beaten and bruised so badly that Ron almost didn't recognize her. Sarah's face was also bruised and bloody, but still slightly recognizable, and she appeared to be in Gerald's basement from what Ron could tell. Several other photos were of headless bodies in some random house, and they were all mutilated beyond recognition, yet Ron noticed something that made him nearly puke. Some of these headless bodies were children's bodies, and this fact made Ron sick to his stomach. There were so many photos like this, and Ron couldn't take anymore of it. He shoved the photos aside with disgust, yet Kim took notice of them right away.
"Ron, what is it? What's the matter?" Kim asked with concern in her voice.
"It... it's all... so horrible" Ron stammered, glancing down at the pile of crime scene photos with a sickened expression.
"What are those?" Kim grabbed the photos and gasped in horror upon seeing them.
"Tried to warn you" Ron muttered in a pitiful tone.
"M-my God," Kim exclaimed, checking each photo. "W-what is all this?".
"Crime scene photos," Ron replied grimly. "And if I had to guess, I'd say those ones of Sarah were probably taken by Gerald. As for those other ones, I don't know".
Kim continued looking over the photos, and they only got worse. There were images of dead children in animal cages in what looked like some dungeon, and there were also photos of taxidermized human heads in what looked like a large storage closet. Once Kim finally got through all of them, she was nearly sick.
"This... this is just horrible," Kim exclaimed, placing a hand on her mouth. "W-what kind of town is this?! What happened here?".
"I don't know, KP," Ron replied in a grim voice. "But from what I read in that paper, and from what we saw on those tapes, I can get a bit of an idea of what went down here".
"These case files might mention something about it as well," Kim speculated, gathering up the case documents. "Its clear that the police chief was not only corrupt, but also working for Mayor Gerald Farcus as well. From what I can piece together from what we saw at the police station, and from Ridley's story about his past, I'm guessing that Gerald was running some sort of underground criminal enterprise here in this town".
"It certainly looks like it," Ron replied, glancing at the gruesome crime scene photos again. "And these people in the photos must have been his victims, or perhaps others that got involved with him".
"Either way, we should look some of these over before heading out" Kim said, taking a look at one of the case files.
Ron glanced back at the cabinet, then noticed something that he hadn't noticed before. He saw one of the bottom drawers of the filing cabinet slightly ajar next to the one he had just opened moments ago, and there was something poking out of it. Ron reached over and opened the drawer up, finding a large folder which had tons of small cassette tapes inside them along with camera tapes next to them. This folder was labeled "VIDEO EVIDENCE". Each tape also had a label on it as well, and there were quite a ton of them.
"Kim, I found more tapes" Ron reported, showing Kim the tapes.
Kim however, wasn't paying attention. Something seemed to have caught her attention as Ron saw her reading several of the evidence case files, and whatever it was seemed to be greatly disturbing her. Ron glanced down at one of the files and picked it up to read it. It was a disturbing case that involved a family of four back in 1978, and from what Ron gathered from reading it, the two children had been victims of human trafficking. The parents of these children apparently owed a shady loan company that was secretly owned by Gerald's criminal gang, and when they couldn't pay off the loan in time, a group of cops arrested them on false charges of drug possessions and also nabbed the children as well. Instead of being taken to the police station however, the cops took the whole family down to a secluded location where they made a horrid snuff film with several other members of Gerald's gang of the whole family being brutally murdered. From what Ron read, the parents were tortured with medieval torture weapons and butchered with chainsaws, but as for their children? They were sold to the Mexican Cartel by Gerald to be used as "human meat delicacies". The whole thing had been written off to the public as a drug deal between rival gangs gone bad and the family had been murdered as a result. Ron couldn't believe what he was reading. To the public in this town, they had all been completely oblivious to the fact that their own police force were a gang of criminals lead by their own Mayor, and he had been behind it all. His brother Todd Farcus had also been assisting in this crime as well. None of the citizens knew the truth, and they wouldn't know until Todd was arrested and the crimes of his brother and his criminal organization was revealed to the public.
"Shit...," Ron exclaimed, shaking his head. "Gerald and his brother were just as bad as Ridley. Now I can see where he probably got most of his evil kicks from".
"And it only gets worse" Kim said, glancing up at Ron, who looked shaken from whatever she had read.
"What is it?" Ron asked, glancing at the case sheet she was reading.
"Better have a good look," Kim replied grimly, handing it over to Ron. "Its... God. Its awful".
Ron read the case, and what he saw absolutely sickened him. The case was of an underground human meat factory that was secretly run by Todd Farcus, and it was a place where he'd send all those who learned the truth about his and Gerald's secret criminal empire, or those that they deemed "problems to the towns order". There were photos of human bodies hanging on meat hooks, woman being used as "breeding" cattle, and even some of children being used as targets for gun practice. This was by far the worst piece of evidence Ron had seen so far. The meat factory was apparently located far underground about three miles away from Dark Wood, and all who were sent there would be abused and tortured in ways not seen since the holocaust. Snuff films would also be made of the abuse and torture which would be sold to other criminal organizations by Gerald for profit, and once the victims were dead, they'd be butchered like cattle and their meat sold on the black market. Ron couldn't believe what he was reading. This was like something straight out of a horror film, and Ron didn't think he'd ever see something like this in reality. More and more cases of corruption and cruelty were found within the pile. One was of four high school girls that had been arrested on false charges of prostitution since they refused sexual advances from a group of thugs that worked for Gerald. After being arrested, they were sent to the meat factory to be used and abused by Gerald's criminal organization, and their families were then hunted down and systematically murdered by the police chief's officers disguised as cartel hitmen.
"Sweet mother of God," Ron exclaimed. "This is something Dr. Director needs to see".
"And the tapes too" Kim replied, gathering the tapes up.
"I wonder if there's anything else here in the upper drawers" Ron wondered, setting the files down and checking the other drawers.
Most of them were empty, but the last one on the top had one more file on it along with a small box under it, and it was something that Ron didn't expect to see. It was a false marriage certificate proclaiming that Gerald Farcus and Sarah Feathers had been officially married. Upon reading the case file under the false marriage certificate, Ron learned that Feathers had been Sarah's maiden name before Gerald had it forcibly changed to his last name. There were details about how Todd Farcus lied to the public and said that Sarah had been declared legally dead and called off the search, only this was a deception to ensure that no one knew the truth, and that truth was that Sarah was very much alive and being held captive by Gerald in his mansion. When Gerald had Sarah's parents and family murdered as punishment for trying to escape the mansion, Todd lied to the public and said that they had been victims of a home invasion, but this couldn't be further from the truth. The evidence file stated that several criminal cops entered the Feathers house overnight, then brutally tortured and murdered Sarah's entire family, then gave their severed heads to Gerald to be used as trophies in his mansion.
"Feathers... that was Sarah's maiden last name" Ron said aloud.
"More case files?" Kim asked curiously.
"Yes," Ron replied. "And a lot of them too. I think I saw something else in this drawer. Looked like a box or something".
Ron fumbled around in the top drawer and pulled out the small box the file had been sitting on and inspected it. To Ron's surprise, it was actually a small cash box with a lock on it, which Ron easily broke open. Inside it were four video tapes which had labels on them which said, "Meat Slave Factory Exposed", "Mayor Farcus's Mansion Investigated", "Todd Farcus Interrogation", and "Sarah Farcus Snuff Porn Film Discovered". Ron had a bad feeling in his gut that these were probably going to be very ugly, but they still needed them as evidence.
"Are those video tapes?" Kim asked.
"Yes, and I don't think we're gonna like what we see on them," Ron replied grimly. "I have a feeling that they're gonna be so much worse than the other ones we've seen so far".
"This one confuses me," Kim said upon checking the tape mentioning Gerald's mansion. "I thought Ridley destroyed the mansion like he said in that evaluation report you told me about".
"I know," Ron replied, scratching his head. "Something doesn't feel right about that. We'll have to check all four of these tapes along with the other ones too. There's a lot of evidence here that we're gonna have to go through".
"Well, looks like that's all there is in here," Kim replied, gathering up the tapes and papers. "Let's get this all back to the coupe and examine it".
"Yeah, this place is already giving me the creeps" Ron added, gathering up everything he found in the drawers.
Once Kim and Ron had all the evidence gathered up, they made their way out of the judges office and made their way back through the abandoned courtroom. Once Kim and Ron made it back into the old hall, Ron felt his mystical monkey power senses going crazy.
"Ugh! What the hell?" Ron exclaimed, looking around.
"Ron, what is it?" Kim asked worriedly.
"S-something's wrong," Ron stammered, looking around frantically. "I sense... something dark".
"Ron, how could anyone be-" Kim started, but then paused when she saw someone, or something at the end of the long hall to their left.
"What is it, Kim?" Ron asked, then turned to see what Kim was looking at.
He felt his blood run cold when he saw what looked like the figure of a woman standing at the very end of the hall, only she was pitch black with glowing red eyes. The figure was basically a human shadow with glowing red eyes, almost like a ghost, and she stared directly at Kim and Ron about fifty feet away from them. Ron sensed an immense amount of hatred, rage, and sorrow emanating from this shadowy figure at the end of the hall, and it felt hostile.
"R-Ron, what is that?" Kim asked softly in a frightened voice.
"I... I don't know," Ron answered back softly. "But whatever it is, its not friendly. I can sense it!".
Kim glanced over at the exit, then back at the shadowy ghost figure.
"We should make a run for the door. That things far enough away from us, so it shouldn't be able to reach us in time" she whispered to Ron.
"We could try," Ron replied. "But I don't know what that... that thing is capable of, so we'd better be careful".
Kim nodded and rushed towards the door as Ron kept his eyes on the dark female figure across the hall. She stood completely still like a statue, just staring at Ron as Kim rushed out the door. As soon as Ron moved his foot, the shadow figure cocked its head to the side, then it suddenly rushed towards Ron at breakneck speed. Out of instinct, Ron channeled a mystical monkey shield in front of himself, causing the shadow figure to dissipate as soon as it ran into the shield. Ron was actually forced back by the force of the shadow slamming into his shield, causing him to stumble.
"Ron! You all right?" Kim exclaimed in shock.
"Yeah," Ron replied, getting back on his feet. "Didn't see that coming".
Just then, he and Kim heard what sounded like a woman's laughter echoing from within the courthouse. It was feint at first, but then grew louder each second. The area around them also got colder, much too cold in fact to be considered normal. More sounds could now be heard as well. There were sounds of women, men, and children screaming deep from within the courthouse, and it terrified Kim and Ron.
"W-what's going on? Where's that noise coming from?" Kim exclaimed in fear.
"I don't... AAAH! NO!" Ron suddenly grabbed his head as voices suddenly began flooding his mind.
They were very angry voices, all yelling obscenities like "KILL HIM", "MURDERER", "DEMON SPAWN", "TRAITOR", and so many other horrible words that Ron wouldn't dare say aloud. He had no idea what exactly was happening, but Ron was now certain of one thing, and that was that this courthouse was haunted.
"Ron, what's happening?! What's wrong?" Kim gasped frantically, rushing to Ron's side.
"UGH! So many voices! They're angry! So angry!" Ron yelled, trying to shut the voices out.
Kim glanced at the door and grabbed Ron's wrist.
"Ron, run for the door! Let's get out of here!" she practically begged, dragging Ron with her.
Ron clutched his head with both hands as Kim dragged him out, and once Ron made it past the entrance and back out into the open, the voices all stopped. Ron looked up and felt the dark presence leave him completely, and everything was back to normal. He kneeled over and sighed with relief as Kim slammed the courthouse doors shut.
"F-fuck!" Ron cursed.
"Ron, just what the hell happened in there?" Kim asked in a demanding voice mixed with fear and concern.
Ron stood back up, still clearly freaked out by what happened back inside the building.
"T-there were voices in my head," he began in a shaky voice. "They... I think... I think they were ghosts of the past. This building... I think its haunted by the ghosts of... well, I don't know exactly".
"Then that's all the more reason to get away from this place," Kim replied. "If this courthouse is haunted, what if the rest of the town is?".
"I wouldn't doubt that at all," Ron said, glancing back at the courthouse. "Seems this town isn't so abandoned like we thought".
"Well, I don't want to stick around here any longer. Lets get back to the coupe" Kim said, heading down the steps.
Ron followed Kim down the steps, still shaken up by what had happened. He had a pretty good idea of who exactly those angry voices were addressing, but there was no way to know for sure. Whatever was on those tapes they found in the courthouse would hopefully be able to provide both Kim and Ron with the answers they so desperately wanted and needed, but they were pretty sure that those tapes wouldn't be anything pleasant. The two of them were also pretty sure the case files would be the same, so they prepared themselves for whatever horror awaited them as they headed back into the abandoned parking lot.
...
...
Ron and Kim read through the last of the case files before finally getting around to the tapes. They had spent the last hour reading through every case file, and what they found out couldn't be more horrible. Kim and Ron had managed to learn how Gerald and his brother gained power over all of Dark Wood, and it was horrific. In the year 1970, Gerald had been elected Mayor by the Townsfolk after buying into his lies about promising to make the town a more safer place due to the rise in crime and poverty within Dark Wood. Shortly after being elected Mayor, Gerald appointed his brother Todd Farcus as the new Chief of police, then fired all the current officers at the Dark Wood police station and had all of his criminal cops employed in their place. With this new plan in motion, Gerald and his brother would now be able to shape the town of Dark Wood exactly how they wanted, and they would use their power to commit some of the worst crimes in history since the Holocaust. To the public, it seemed as if Gerald and his brother were cracking down on crime by arresting all the criminal gangs, drug lords, and various other criminal scum populating the town and ruining the safety of its citizens. In reality however, Gerald would secretly recruit them into his underground criminal empire that he had been secretly running long before he had become Mayor, but that wasn't even the worst of it.
As it turned out, Gerald and his brother had actually been the ones mostly in charge of the gangs and drug dealers that had been using the town of Dark Wood for their business, and he had used various connections with the criminal underworld to be elected Mayor of Dark Wood. Once Gerald and Todd were both in power over Dark Wood, this gave them everything they needed to begin their reign of terror over the town. Gerald ordered his gangs to start extorting protection money from the citizens of Dark Wood, and if they failed or refused to pay the gangs what they owed them, Todd's officers would plant drugs in their homes or cars and have them arrest on false charges of drug possession. Instead of being sent to prison though, they'd be sent to his underground slave factories to be abused in ways very similar to how the Nazi's treated victims of the Nazi Death Camps. None of the public knew the truth however since Gerald controlled the media and would spread lies about how these people were affiliated with the gangs dealing drugs. However, as more and more people started going missing over the next several months, the people of Dark Wood grew suspicious and began to look into what was going on. When the police were questioned about it, they'd always make excuses by saying things like, "We're still investigating the disappearances", or "They moved out of town".
Some people however dug their noses in too deep, and they paid a horrible price for it. Ron read one case file where several high school boys found out that a few of the cops in the town had raped and tortured several of their girlfriends, only to go missing the next day after telling the other cops at the station about it. The evidence stated that the boys were sent to the human meat factory to be horribly tortured and then murdered, and just two days after they went missing, their families also disappeared as well. Any who dared to try and look into what Gerald and his brother were doing would quickly go missing along with their families, and then the media would spread false lies and deceit to cover it all up. For many years, Gerald and Todd ruled Dark Wood with lies, deceit, and tyranny. Gerald had always managed to stay in office due to his connections with the criminal underworld and corruption politicians who followed him, and all of his competitors would be forced to step down under threats of violence, coercion, or out of fear for their loved ones. Those who were too stubborn or defiant would end up going missing the next day and would never be seen or heard from again. In truth, they'd be sent to the underground human meat factory and treated the same way the others were treated there.
"This is crazy, KP," Ron said as he read the documents. "All this was going on behind closed doors, and no one noticed it".
"There's something I don't get though," Kim began. "Remember back in the courthouse how I mentioned that it didn't make sense that Gerald's mansion was investigated? Well, I've been thinking. Is it possible that Ridley may have lied to that hospital about blowing the mansion up?".
"I wouldn't doubt that being possible," Ron answered. "Given how insane he is, he might have lied about some of it, or possibly made all of it up to cover up the truth".
"What truth exactly?" Kim asked.
"Not sure," Ron said, picking up the tape labeled Mayor Farcus's Mansion Investigated. "But I'm betting this tape here will give us that answer".
Ron slid it into his Kimmunicator and plugged it into the USB cable leading into the center console, then the dashboard screen flipped up and the video began playing. The video opened up with a cameraman entering a large mansion with four FBI agents, then the sound of an officer speaking could be heard.
"Shit, there's blood all over the living room here" the officer said off screen.
Like with the other video's Kim and Ron had seen before with Gerald and Sarah, the quality was not top notch, but still good enough to see what was being displayed. And what they saw was unsettling. The camera moved into a large luxurious living room where an insane amount of blood could be seen splattered all over the walls and sofa's, and there was even some on the peach colored carpet. As the camera moved around the room, the sound of another FBI agent letting out a gasp of horror could be heard in the background.
"Guys, you better call the Coroner! We've got several dead bodies in here," the agent called out in disgust. "Dear God, its like Leatherface hacked them to pieces!".
The cameraman holding the camera rushed out of the living room and into a smaller room which looked like a family room or dining room, and what Kim and Ron saw was horrifying and disgusting. All around the room were the dead, mutilated bodies of several men that looked as if they had been slashed to pieces. Severed limbs, heads, and even internal organs were spilled out all over the floor. It was horrid and revolting, but there was still worse to come. Two more FBI agents beckoned the cameraman upstairs and the screen swerved around and followed the agents up a set of stairs leading to the second floor. There was a lot more blood on the second floor, and there was even a severed human leg laying near an open door. There was no light on inside the room, so Kim and Ron couldn't see what was in there, not at first. Most of the lights in the mansion were dimmed, so things weren't very well lit within the area. Once the cameraman entered the dark room and flipped on the light, an absolutely disgusting sight befell Kim and Ron. There, hanging upside down from a set of chains bolted into the ceiling was none other than Gerald Farcus. Both his arms had been hacked off along with his head, and his body had been hacked and slashed to pieces. Kim and Ron felt sick just seeing this horrid sight. Even though they had already seen more than enough death and torture before, the sight of Gerald's mutilated body made them both nauseous.
"My god! That's Mayor Farcus!" the cameraman exclaimed in horror.
The FBI agents all began calling for backup and then the agent in charge told the cameraman to cut off the tape. The video then skipped ahead to about an hour, but this time, there was no visual. Instead, there was only an audio recording, and it was a long and unsettling one. It was apparently the agent in charge of the investigation who was speaking, and he sounded both upset and terrified.
"This is absolutely insane. I never thought something like this would be going on behind everyone's back in this town. Its like the fucking holocaust all over again. What me and my team just uncovered could only be considered the cruelest abuse of power in the history of this town since its founding after the end of the second World War. Many of you may know about the odd disappearances and murders that occurred while Mayor Farcus was in power, and you may have heard the towns media telling you about it, but I can tell you right now that whatever the media's been telling you is complete bullshit. I know the truth, and its far worse than anyone could have imagined. Turns out, these disappearances and murders weren't caused by drug dealers or criminal gangs, at least not in the ways the media described it. Me and my team found evidence in Mayor Farcus's mansion that confirmed our suspicions that our undercover agent revealed to us, and this evidence... God, how could this happen? Our undercover agent told us that he discovered what could only be described as the worst case of police corruption in the history of his career. Turns out, the police chief of Dark Wood and brother of Mayor Farcus were secretly engaged in organized crime long before Gerald was even elected Mayor of Dark Wood. As many of you might know, crime and gang activity was out of control back in the 1970's and the late 1960's here in the town of Dark Wood and the police had a lot of trouble handling it. Random citizens were being attacked in the night, mugged, raped at gunpoint, and just so much more horrible shit that I don't want to get into.
However, when Gerald Farcus was elected into power as the new Mayor of Dark Wood in 1970, things got so much worse. He used his power as Mayor to have the current police chief and his officers all fired from the Dark Wood police station under the pretenses of "Not doing their duty to crack down on crime", and then Mayor Farcus had his brother put into power as the new police chief along with a group of police officers that secretly worked for the criminal underworld under Gerald Farcus's command. They'd play their roles as cops to the public, but in secret, they'd be engaged in criminal acts. These acts included human trafficking, drug trafficking, snuff porn film production, and so many other horrible things that are just too fucked up for me to describe. Once Mayor Farcus was in power, he promised to crack down on the crime infesting the town of Dark Wood, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. In reality, the criminal gangs that the cops arrested were secretly released from the Dark Wood jail and recruited into Mayor Farcus's criminal empire. Some of the stubborn ones refused and were treated like all the others that Mayor Farcus deemed "unworthy", and with some, their loyalty was bought or coerced. Others had no issue joining him, and this soon became a common tactic that Mayor Farcus would use to not only stay in power, but also to ensure that he had complete control over the town. Crime seemed to ease within Dark Wood a bit once Mayor Farcus was in power, but that was only because his criminal empire operated in the shadows through manipulation, extortion, money laundering, drug trafficking, and so much more. Anything that went on in the public was simply passed off as petty crimes by the police and media. No one knew the truth, and anyone who did would disappear once the police caught onto it. As if that wasn't bad enough, Mayor Farcus also had a fetish for young teen girls. I just recently found this out after stumbling into a small safe containing child porn polaroid pictures inside Gerald's old room. That's where he was actually found dead a few minutes ago by my team and... my God. Most of the details on how Mayor Farcus was murdered is too graphic and disturbing to say in one piece, so I'll just simplify it. He was dismembered like some of the other goons we saw back there, but from what the Coroner could tell, Gerald was clearly tortured slowly and painfully, then hacked into pieces. I don't even want to tell you what we found in his mouth though. That's best left unheard.
We still haven't found out who murder Gerald and his bodyguards, and no one knows where his son Ridley Farcus is. My boss thinks he might have been kidnapped by whoever did this, but we're still not sure. The Dark Wood police station is currently under lockdown and being investigated by other FBI agents, and even the Feds are involved now. The citizens are being questioned for any possible info on Gerald and his corrupt officers. As for Todd Farcus, he's been arrested after the FBI confirmed the evidence on him was true, and his office is now being investigated. And you'd better believe me when I say that there's a ton of evidence there and in his home that confirms he was operating under Mayor Farcus's command. As I said at the start of this audio message, the evidence we found proves that Mayor Farcus and his brother abused their power in horrible ways that count as crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. Todd Farcus will probably be facing the death penalty due to the severity of some of the evidence we found regarding how he treated the illegal immigrants in this town. In all my years as an FBI agent, I never thought I'd be dealing with something like this. How could such cruelty and abuse go on like this and not be noticed until its too late? Well, we'll soon find out once Todd Farcus is brought to trial for his crimes".
The tape officially ended there, and Kim and Ron were left speechless. They just stared at the blank screen in silence for over two minutes, and not even Rufus made a sound. What they just heard confirmed all of their suspicions.
"He lied," Ron said softly in a stone cold voice. "Ridley lied in omission. He murdered his father, but he never destroyed the whole mansion".
"That means it must still be there" Kim realized.
"Then that's where we need to go," Ron replied. "I already know the address since I saw it on one of the papers back in the courthouse".
Ron entered the address to the Farcus Manor in the GPS, and then they were off.
"Ron, that agent mentioned that Ridley was missing. What do you suppose happened to him? I mean, if he lied about the part where he bombed the mansion, is it possible that he may have lied about the other things he said in that medical report?" Kim wondered.
"I'm not even gonna doubt it at this point," Ron replied. "Everything we've seen and found so far in this town proves that the Farcus family was evil to the core. Gerald and his brother were both crime lords who abused their power and took advantage of so many weak and defenseless people here in this town, and they'd feed insidious lies to the public to cover up all the crimes they committed. And with the police officers all being members of Gerald's criminal empire, they'd help enforce all of Gerald's lies and deceit. This is even crazier than I could have imagined".
"You think that's why the town was abandoned? Because of what Gerald and his brother did?" Kim asked.
"That might have been it, but we'll need to listen to all the other tapes and read the rest of the evidence to find out," Ron replied. "And hopefully, we might find something in Gerald's old mansion that will reveal just what happened to make everyone in this town leave and abandon it".
"You think there might be more ghosts in that mansion like in the courthouse?" Kim wondered with a hint of fear in her voice.
Ron shuddered upon remembering that black ghost figure and all the horrible ghostly screams and angry ranting he had heard back there in the courthouse. He hoped that there wasn't anything else like that waiting for them in the Farcus mansion.
"No idea, but I'm hoping there isn't," Ron replied. "I for one am not willing to have anymore ghosts of the past assaulting my mind".
"Neither am I" Kim agreed.
As they headed for Gerald's old mansion, they both wondered what horrors they'd both find there. Kim and Ron had already learned most of the truth so far about the towns dark past, and they now knew Ridley had been lying when he said he destroyed the mansion. Had Ridley gone into hiding after murdering his father? Kim and Ron still had no answer to that question, and even the FBI didn't know either. However, they had a gut feeling that they'd find the answer at Gerald's mansion, assuming it hadn't been gutted and stripped of all evidence. While everything Kim and Ron had found filled them with more knowledge on Ridley's father Gerald, they still hadn't found out about Ridley's past, other than he had been constantly abused by Gerald. Todd Farcus had confessed this to the FBI when caught, yet he didn't provide any further details about it. The biggest question still lingered in Kim and Ron's minds however; what happened to everyone in Dark Wood? Why had the town just been straight up abandoned? Ron figured it might have had to do with Todd and Gerald's evil criminal empire being exposed, but they were pretty sure that there was more to it. After all, this towns existence had been erased from the public, and only a slight amount of info on it was available on the dark web. Was it possible that Black Shadow erased all records of the towns existence like with Ridley's identity? After all, how could such a dark piece of history like Gerald and Todd's abuse of power in Dark Wood just vanish? Surely someone had to know about it.
Kim and Ron simply rode in silence all the way to Gerald's mansion, wondering if they'd finally get the answers they wanted and needed there. This was pretty much their last shot at finding anything out about Ridley's past, and this was what worried them both. If Kim and Ron couldn't find anything on Ridley's past, how would they figure out where to find him?
"There has to be something there that may lead us to Ridley. If there isn't, finding him might be impossible" Ron thought as he and Kim continued towards the mansion, praying that they'd find what they needed there.
A/N: Seems Dark Wood has a much more sinister history than anyone thought. And Ridley seems to have lied about a few things. But will Kim and Ron find anything in Gerald's mansion that will lead them to him? You'll all find out soon enough.