"Alright... Just go in already."
"Ack-! What are you doing in here?! Get out already! Go on!"
"Just calm down for a moment..."
"You're trying to ruin our show, aren't you?! Monstrous little punk! I don't know what you're trying to pull, but I'm not going to let you get away with it!"
"I told you to be quiet! Quit screaming already!"
"Everybody is going to know exactly what you're doing. Just give it a few minutes, and your life will be ruined. I have a lot more power than pathetic souls like you are willing to believe."
"Stop this already! Get out of my damn way!"
"What are you-"
"...Well, it seems that plans are going to have to change... It's not convenient, but what crimes like this ever are...? I can manage it..."
May 16
Grand Hall Theater
6:45 PM
Deirdre Brigit
It was a warm night in May that I found myself walking into the Grand Hall Theater. I couldn't keep the gentle smile off my face. Tonight was certainly going to be enjoyable, and it was nice to take a step away from work for a few hours.
Chrysalis was performing in a show here in the theater, and she invited the rest of us to come and see it. Somehow, it didn't come as a surprise to me that she was a performer behind the rest of her business. After all, how could it shock me when I was fully aware of what she did outside of the theater? Being Oracle had certainly given her the time to refine her abilities as far as acting was concerned, and it was only right that she had the chance to show that off every once in a while.
I was with Yuri and Mr. Morix as I walked inside of the building. Lily wound up having other business at the last minute, though she vowed to come and see it on another night. Victoria had already made plans with her boyfriend for a date night, and she didn't want to back out at the last second. As for Felicity and Sky, they were busy doing other things that night as well, though I wasn't sure as to what they were. I hadn't been given the chance to ask, and I wasn't going to force it out of them if it wasn't that important.
"This is going to be fun," Yuri grinned. "I'm sure that Chrysalis is going to do great." She pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time. "We've got about fifteen minutes until the show starts, so we should go and find our seats."
I nodded my agreement. We passed through the lobby of the theater and into the main area. There were a lot of people, and it was a trying task to navigate through the crowd without bumping into anyone. Due to the large number of people, I found myself clinging to Mr. Morix's hand. He was incredibly tall, allowing him to tower over most of the others in the lobby. I couldn't get lost if I was with him. Yuri held tight to my other arm as he led us through the clusters of people and into the theater.
The first thing I noticed was the stage. It was huge, to put it simply, and the red curtains were shut to keep it from view. I let out a small sigh of awe. "Wow... It seems that the venue is one meant for these large performances," I whispered. I detached myself from Mr. Morix, though Yuri wound up staying close to me even after I unhooked myself from my boss. She was rather small, after all, and I bet she was still nervous about somehow getting lost in the crowd.
Mr. Morix was able to lead us to our seats without any issues, and I was surprised by how great they were. He had mentioned that Chrysalis was able to get us a great set of seats since she knew we would be coming. There were three other seats available on the other side of Mr. Morix, and I glanced to them once we were all sitting down fully. "Who do those seats belong to?" I questioned.
"Sora, Ghastly, and Niamh are coming along tonight," Mr. Morix replied. "Originally, Polly, Anton, and Elec were going to see it tonight too, but they wound up having other business to take care of. I'm sure Chrysalis will be able to get them tickets for one of the other few nights that the show is running. After all, she was able to get us these seats, and they're fantastic."
"I'm excited to see what it's about," Yuri remarked, looking up to the stage with a smile on her face. She tilted her head to the side after placing her cheek in her palm. "I haven't heard anything about it. Chrysalis is pretty good at keeping secrets when she wants to."
I bit back a comment on how she was much better than any of us were likely aware of. After all, it came with the territory since she was a spy on the side. However, I didn't want anyone to overhear us, so I trusted that the other two had come to the same conclusion even without me having to say it out loud.
"The show is a tragedy, to say the least," Mr. Morix began. "The leading part is being played by a girl named Saya Kan. She's... A bit of a unique character. That's probably putting it lightly, but... She's far from being like the character she plays on the stage. She may be kind during the performance, but I've heard from Chrysalis that she has a bit of an ego that can get to her at the worst times."
"What about Chrysalis herself?" I questioned. "I hope that she's not playing any villainous characters during this production."
Mr. Morix shook his head. "Nope. She's instead playing a mysterious sidebar characters... Isn't that a perfect fit?" he remarked with a small laugh. He didn't finish the joke, but I understood it perfectly without him needing to specify.
Before he could continue, the overhead lights grew dimmer, and I gasped. It appeared that the show was starting. I saw Prosecutor Lin, Prosecutor Wood, and Chief Prosecutor Bespoke dash into their seats just as darkness set in over the theater. They didn't get the chance to say anything on the matter, but I didn't think they needed to say anything. Prosecutor Lin's apologetic gaze told me everything I really needed to know about their tardiness.
I turned my attention towards the stage. The curtains slowly chugged open, and I was surprised to be met with an empty stage. I watched it intently, waiting for something to change.
Then it did.
A platform was slowly lowered down from above, and I realized it was a part of the stage. However, something seemed to be off about it, and I soon realized what it was. My hands flew to my mouth, and my eyes went wide.
There was a person stationed upright, tied to a vertical pole jutting out from the platform. I could see blood all over their clothes, and it was centered on their chest. They weren't moving, and I wasn't sure if this was part of the show.
"Is this how it's supposed to start...?" Yuri questioned, her eyes wide in panic as she looked over to Mr. Morix. He didn't offer a response, but judging by how pale his face had gotten, this was far from being part of the typical show-starting routine.
A person walked out from the side of the stage, and I recognized the person in question as Chrysalis. The long honey blonde hair was an easy giveaway. She was wearing a fancy pink dress that reached her ankles, and she looked perfect for the stage.
Well, if not for the blood that was splattered across her chest.
There was red all over the front area of her chest, and chatters began to rise up from the crowd. She looked down, seeing the stains on her dress, and her hands clapped over her mouth as fear appeared on her face. My hands tightened into fists, and I couldn't help but stare, unsure of what else I was supposed to do on the matter.
Screams rose up from the crowd as the realization set in that the person who was propped up on the pole was dead. Now that the platform was lowering further, I could see a wound on the person's chest, and I realized that it was likely a stabbing injury. Given where it was positioned, it seemed that there was no way the person in question could have survived the hit.
The room seemed to be covered in a blanket of chaos, and all I could do was stare at the stage. What else could I do? There was no sign of anything else that could take my attention, and I didn't know how else I was meant to respond to the idea of a murder taking place.
May 16
Grand Hall Theater
8:00 PM
Deirdre Brigit
About an hour had passed since the discovery of the body. Most people in the crowd had been told to leave the theater, so I was in the lobby alongside Mr. Morix and Yuri. The trio of prosecutors had broken off to see what was going on nearly as soon as the body had been discovered, so I didn't know where they were anymore. Instead, I stared at the ground, trying not to think of all the ways this could go wrong from here.
I already had a sneaking suspicion that the murder suspect was going to wind up being Chrysalis. After all, she had been seen walking onto the stage covered in blood. That was pretty damn incriminating, and I wasn't sure if there was a way for her to worm out of it. The entire audience saw her, and that was a bit of a big deal, to put it lightly.
"I wonder what's going to happen from here," Yuri remarked, looking up to me. She was speaking up for the first time in nearly fifteen minutes. It was chilling to see her so quiet, but I knew it was because she was distracted with everything else that was going on. It was hard to focus on being bubbly or upholding a conversation when there were a thousand other things running through your head.
"I feel like we already know who's going to wind up as the suspect," I told her quietly, praying that Mr. Morix didn't overhear me. He was stressed enough as it was, and I didn't want to add to his panic. Granted, I was sure that he was already fully aware of what I had said. He simply hadn't wanted to speak about it in case that made his worst fears come to fruition.
However, he didn't say anything when I spoke up. Instead, he looked down at the ground, his eyes somewhat glossy in his moment of unfocused thought. I already knew what he was thinking about, and I wished that I could do something to make it better, but there wasn't some miraculous button for me to push that would fix this problem. Hell, nothing would really fix what happened aside from Chrysalis not being arrested, though the chances of that happening were slim, assuming they existed in the first place. There was one inevitable future, and no matter how much he tried to avoid speaking of it, the fact remained that it was still there.
The doors to the theater opened, and I looked up. There were a few people walking out of the main audience area, and I recognized them rather quickly. First and foremost, Prosecutor Lin, Prosecutor Wood, and Chief Prosecutor Bespoke were together. It seemed that they had finished up their preliminary investigation. Beside them were the Umber twins. Both of them had serious expressions on their face. I have to admit that I didn't expect to see them, but I suspected that they had been called upon to come and see what had happened when people began to report a crime taking place.
"Everyone is free to go home for the time being unless they have extra information about the crime that took place," came the strong voice of Chief Prosecutor Bespoke. I could tell based on how ragged and worn down he sounded that he was not fond of what had happened. "We have a suspect in custody, and our investigation will continue through tomorrow to learn more about the case."
He hadn't mentioned who the suspect was, but I already had a sinking feeling that my suspicions were about to be confirmed. I swallowed dryly with a brief glance over to my coworkers. Mr. Morix had snapped out of his trance, and I got the feeling he was planning on heading over to where the quintet of investigators were standing to ask for more details.
Sure enough, that was what he did after the crowds began to stream out. The chatter in the room was noisy, and I had to resist the urge to clap my hands over my ears to try and block it out. It only took a few minutes for everyone to leave, though the prosecutors and detective remained positioned by the doors into the theater to keep anyone from trying to sneak inside and get a look at the crime scene. If anyone did try, they backed off upon seeing the guards of the room, and soon enough, only Mr. Morix, Yuri, and I were left with a few particularly curious bystanders.
Mr. Morix crossed the room quickly to approach Chief Prosecutor Bespoke, a stern expression on his face. "I want to know who you arrested," he said firmly. I got the feeling he was clinging to any potential hope that this wasn't going to lead to an announcement that Chrysalis was responsible. Maybe with familiar faces on the case, we had gotten lucky.
Chief Prosecutor Bespoke hesitated, and I already knew the news he had for us was far from favorable. "I wasn't exactly the one to carry out the arrest... You'll want to speak with Prosecutor Umber if you want more information," he said, cringing when he saw the fear that appeared in Mr. Morix's eyes at this revelation. "I'm sorry."
Those two words said everything that we could have wanted to know, but just to reiterate it all, Prosecutor Umber approached us with his sister close in tow. "The suspect is one Chrysalis Starr," Prosecutor Umber told us. "She was seen walking onto the stage covered in blood. We are still looking for evidence that this blood belongs to the victim, but things are not looking good for her right now."
I bit my lip upon hearing those words. I had known this would be the case from the second Chrysalis stepped onto the stage, but that didn't make hearing the truth any easier. Tonight wasn't going as well as we had hoped, and that was putting it lightly.
Detective Umber doubled back into the theater, and when she came out a few seconds later, she was holding onto the shoulder of someone much shorter than her. It didn't take me long to recognize this person as Chrysalis. Her hands were in cuffs behind her, and she was staring down at the ground blankly. Her expression was unreadable, though I suppose that's just par for the course for Chrysalis at this point.
"Chrysalis..." Mr. Morix whispered. He turned his attention to Detective Umber next. "You don't need to worry about finding someone to defend her. We'll do it."
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind for when we get to the detention center," Detective Umber told him. She gently nudged Chrysalis forwards. "Come on. We have to go."
Chrysalis gave us one glance as she left, and I could tell that there was a lot she wanted to say but was holding back on. A few moments later, she disappeared from view as she left behind the building entirely. A sigh left my lips, and I knew this case was going to be far from dealing with.
"I'm going to head with my sister. I trust the rest of you to take care of things here before the investigation stops for now," Prosecutor Umber said, looking to his three coworkers. When he received nods, he walked away, disappearing in the same direction as Detective Umber and Chrysalis.
Once he was gone, Mr. Morix turned to Chief Prosecutor Bespoke, a hurt expression appearing on his face. "You didn't have her arrested, right? I would expect you to know her much better than that," he whispered. Somehow, his quiet was more threatening than him yelling ever could have been. It sent a shiver up my spine even though I knew he was far from the violent type.
Chief Prosecutor Bespoke shook his head. "I wasn't even part of the investigation. The workers for this case are going to be Sora, Niamh, and Prosecutor Umber," he answered. "Prosecutor Umber and his sister were the ones to decide that she was suspicious. If you want to get angry at anyone, might I suggest them?"
"The evidence most certainly isn't in our favor though..." Prosecutor Lin murmured. "I want Chrysalis to be freed of suspicion just as much as the rest of you do. You can trust me when I say that. But... She came onto the stage covered in blood, and that's a pretty important piece of evidence. I bet someone framed her."
"Did you notice how quiet she was?" Yuri questioned. "There had to be something going on there..."
I frowned to Yuri. "What do you mean? Chrysalis is far from being the most talkative person unless she's around people she knows well, and I somehow doubt that the Umber twins constitute as part of that inner circle," I pointed out.
"I know, but there was something odd about what was happening there... She seemed so distant, like she couldn't get her focus together," Yuri pointed out. "Even as she was being arrested, she seemed so... Unfocused. For someone who is able to keep a laser-perfect sense of concentration most of the time, it's weird."
Prosecutor Lin pondered her words. "Come to think of it, you have a point there... I mean, Chrysalis has always been the type to focus on everything that happens in detail. It's hard to get anything past her, but she didn't seem to be paying attention at all to what was happening as she was being led away. There had to be something else on her mind," she agreed.
"Maybe it was just the shock of being arrested for murder," Prosecutor Wood suggested. "I mean, that would catch anyone off-guard... I-I think. Maybe that's not so right after all... I don't know her as well as the rest of you do, so... Never mind. Just ignore my opinion."
"That's a possibility," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke told her with a light yet reassuring smile. "You don't need to worry too much, Niamh. We're going to figure this out, and I'm sure that you're going to be a huge help in learning the truth behind this case. You're a good prosecutor, and since you want to find the truth just as much as everyone else here, I trust you to put your all into this investigation."
Prosecutor Wood flushed immediately upon receiving such attention, and she looked down, rocking back and forth on her feet. "C-Come on... You're embarrassing me..." she whispered, unable to tear her gaze away from the floor.
"Are we going to be able to look around at the crime scene tonight?" Mr. Morix questioned, trying to see if there were people inside the theater itself.
Chief Prosecutor Bespoke shook his head. "It's getting late, so we're taking a break and picking it up tomorrow. It wouldn't do us any good to investigate all night when the trial won't even be held tomorrow. We've got an entire extra day to prepare for when this case gets taken to court. Isn't that extremely helpful?" he questioned, his voice dry and sarcastic.
A sigh left my lips, and I shook my head. "I wish we were able to help more, but I don't think we'll be able to do much to aid Chrysalis tonight if we can't even investigate... Is there anything we should know about the case before we split up for the night?" I questioned.
Prosecutor Lin nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes... We have a murder method figured out. It was a stab wound to the chest. Judging by its location, death was instantaneous," she began. "On top of that, fingerprints were detected on the handle of the knife that was used to kill the victim. We don't know who the prints belong to quite yet, but there is one odd thing about it all..."
"And what would that be?" Yuri questioned, tilting her head to one side in curiosity.
"There was no blood on the knife handle," Prosecutor Wood piped up. "With how much blood there was, it seemed obvious that there was going to be some sort of stain on the handle, but... There's nothing there."
Mr. Morix frowned at that statement. "I agree, that is incredibly odd... Even from the audience, it was easy to see that there was blood nearly everywhere on the victim's body. To have nothing appear on the knife used to kill her would be rather strange, and that's likely putting it a bit simply," he murmured. "Is there anything else that struck you as odd during the initial investigation?"
Prosecutor Lin paused to think for a moment before shrugging and shaking her head. "The forensics team is going to keep looking around even if the rest of us are heading home for the night. They're hoping to find the actual crime scene. It's got to be somewhere in this theater, but we aren't sure exactly where it was. The body had to have been moved onto the stage platform that it was lowered from," she began. "There wasn't any blood splatter found on the floor of the platform, and that's weird for reasons we already mentioned. There should have been more blood, but the area around the corpse was oddly spotless, so that points to the idea that something else is going on here."
"We'll certainly have to look into that more when we come back tomorrow," I concluded. "We're going to do everything we can in order to free Chrysalis. She doesn't deserve to suffer in the detention center for something she didn't do. She would never kill anyone, and those who think so are far from knowing her well."
"I agree," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said. "We're going to keep looking around tomorrow... Well, these two are. I have too much paperwork to take care of at the office to investigate, though believe me when I say that I would much rather be here trying to figure out what's going on."
"I understand," Mr. Morix assured him with a gentle yet weary smile. "We're going to find the truth, so you don't need to worry. As soon as we figure out what really happened, you'll know about it. Try not to stress yourself out too much over it, okay?"
Chief Prosecutor Bespoke nodded. "Thanks for that, Cotoli... Now, let's all go home and get some sleep. We've all got a big day ahead of us, and it wouldn't do for us to tire ourselves out when the investigation is waiting," he declared.
With that said, our little group dispersed. I couldn't help but think about who could have done this and why. There had to be a reason behind this killing, a reason to frame Chrysalis, but that was still undiscovered. If nobody else was going to dig it up, then the job would fall to me, and I was happy to try and figure out the truth.
May 17
Grand Hall Theater
8:00 AM
Deirdre Brigit
The next morning, I walked into the Grand Hall Theater with a light exhale. After a night of fitful sleep, I was ready to take on this investigation. I had spent so much of the night worrying about what would happen if this went wrong, and it appeared that I was far from being the only one.
Mr. Morix was the first one of us three to arrive at the theater, and judging by how heavy his eyes appeared, he had barely slept the night before. I wasn't particularly surprised given his history when it came to worrying about Chrysalis, but it was still upsetting to see him this way. Since he was so close with his youngest sister, he tended to go into overprotective mode when he suspected that she was in danger. It had happened with the Interpol kidnapping, it had happened with the promise of a traitor in the agency, and it was happening again now.
"Are you alright, Mr. Morix?" I questioned, walking closer to him. I was trying not to startle him given that he barely seemed to be holding onto his sense of self under the heavy burden of his exhaustion.
Mr. Morix nearly jumped three feet in the air out of pure shock at seeing me. It seemed my attempts to not scare him wound up not helping much. Maybe I was simply destined to frighten people no matter what. "Oh, Deirdre!" Mr. Morix exclaimed. "It's nothing. I'm fine. Just didn't sleep all that much last night."
Yuri came dashing up to us shortly afterwards, breathing heavily. "Sorry I'm late! I wound up getting stuck in traffic," she declared, leaning over to place her palms on her knees as she continued to pant wildly.
I placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to worry about it, Yuri. We understand," I assured her. "Now, we should go on and head inside. The investigation is awaiting us."
"Before you got here, I went inside and started asking some questions," Mr. Morix told us. "I have a small list of witnesses for us to talk to about all of this. There's nobody from the audience for us to speak with, but there are three people part of the theatrical production itself that supposedly know something that could be crucial to figuring this case out."
"Who are they?" Yuri questioning, finally managing to catch her breath. Once she was breathing normally, she rose to her full height and looked up at Mr. Morix in curiosity.
"The first is Satoki Amaya. He's an actor who said that he saw something odd backstage. Next up is Shane Carmen, who is in the same boat as Satoki," Mr. Morix explained. "Last but not least is one Stayge Crewe. He's part of the backstage group that helps to change sets and the like. All three of them said that they witnessed something odd over the course of the preparation period leading up to the curtains falling."
"It seems that we've got a lot on our plate as far as speaking to witnesses is concerned," I remarked, frowning to myself. This investigation was already seeming like it was going to take a lot longer than I would have expected.
"I do have one other thing though," Mr. Morix said. He reached into a bag that was hanging over his shoulder and pulled out an envelope. In my exhaustion, I hadn't even realized the bag was there. Maybe I was more tired than I thought.
"Is that what I think it is?" Yuri asked, a smile appearing on her face. She reached out and grabbed the envelope from Mr. Morix before opening it.
"It is. That's the autopsy report," Mr. Morix replied with a nod. "Go on and open it. We can check it out together."
At his direction, Yuri opened the autopsy report. I moved to read it from over her shoulder, but Yuri decided to read it out loud so that I didn't have to. "The victim is one Saya Kan. She's nineteen years old and was stabbed once in the chest. Death was instant," Yuri began. "The time of death was about 6:00 last night."
"Saya Kan... Didn't you say that was the lead of this show?" I questioned of Mr. Morix.
He nodded in response. "I did, as a matter of fact... I don't know what the police think the motive is yet, but I get the feeling that it will have something to do with her attitude. I've talked to Chrysalis quite a bit about this show, and she has told me on multiple occasions that Saya was not a pleasant person to work with. She had an ego that got in the way of her work all the time, and it was hard for people to associate with her given how pretentious she could be. This doesn't mean that she deserved to die, but... I feel as if the police involved with this case will twist Chrysalis' distaste for Saya around into a motive for murder," Mr. Morix told us.
I sighed and shook my head. "Oh, my... I suppose we'll just have to ask the people inside what they know about it. Perhaps we can speak to the witnesses about everything as well. They were involved with the show from behind the scenes as well, so I'm sure that they are fully aware of the attitude of the victim as well," I pointed out.
"We've got a lot on our plates, so perhaps we should go on and get started," Yuri suggested. She started walking towards the door, and Mr. Morix followed after her. I traced their footsteps a few seconds later. I had a bad feeling about this case already, though I wasn't quite sure of how to describe it. I just hoped that this didn't wind up being as large of a disaster as I was starting to fear it would be...
I've been so excited for this case. It was one of my favorites in the first draft of this story from about four years ago, and I'm glad to go back to it now. I think this improves on the original while still capturing the same spirit of it, and I hope that you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.
-Digital