At lunch, Francis got out his shovel and a newly bought fresh bag of dirt. Since he dug out Plushbun and his trunk which also contained his coffin, there was nothing but a shallow two-foot deep grave that was just sitting out in his yard. He needed to fill it back up to prevent injuries or anything harmful. Yuki, Ying, and Keong were in the kitchen eating sandwiches when they saw Francis with the shovel and the bag of dirt.
"Where are you going Francis?" Ying asked.
"I'm just filling up the gap in the backyard," Francis answered. "Won't need any help today." He opened the back door and entered into the gloomy outside of the backyard. The sky was grey and the wind was cool that flew into the atmosphere. The hollow grave was sticking out from the green grass with a pile of lumpy mud right next to it. Clumps of grass were sticking out.
Francis struck the pile of mud next to the grave and began to refill the grave with the mud. A slight wet sound went into the grave. Francis then went on his knees and tried to equalize the dirt into the bottom of the grave, until something jabbed him in the elbow which made him jump back and rubbed his elbow firmly.
"Son of a-gah!" He exclaimed, "Stupid rocks!" Although this didn't feel like something from a rock, it felt like it was something metal. Francis got down on his knees and leaned over and saw it. Sticking out on the right side of the dirt wall of the grave, was yet another trunk sticking out of the moist dirt. Another trunk, could it be another Plushbun? Francis thought he saw that it was the side of the trunk which he saw was a handle that dangled with little lumps of dirt. He grabbed the handle and began to tug it. The trunk easily slid out and landed into the hollow grave.
It is another trunk! But it has the same decoration as the first one. Francis then got the trunk out of the grave and put it on the grass, he then opened the trunk with the latches and saw that another coffin was there. The coffin was instead of a black one, it was a gold color with black cursive writing on the top. It was read out in black cursive words: Plushbear.
"Another plush…" he mumbled, he heard the door open and saw Ying with the phone in her hands.
"Francis! Leela wants to talk to you!" Ying called out. Francis got up and went to Ying, he grabbed the phone with his muddy clamps.
"Yeah Leela?"
"Francis, they found another one." Her voice was worrisome, Francis was also concerned.
"Found another what Leela?"
It was silent for a moment. "They found another murder victim in a town called Silver Star, it's about ten miles away from your house."
"Where is the body?" Francis asked.
"It's in a valley full of goats, Smitty wants you there to examine it for him."
Francis immediately hung up and grabbed his jacket and his car keys and leaned to the kitchen room. "I'm going out for a little bit, I won't be back until dinner."
Yuki looked over her shoulder. "Where are you going?"
"Just somewhere,"
Inside his car, he was at the speed limit and was driving on a stretched road in between two grassed valley mountains, fences were separating the road and mountain valleys. He looked out and saw the sign saying: Now entering Silver Star, Have a nice day! He looked out and saw a police hover car and Leela's Toyota truck parked on the side of the fenced valley, Leela and Smitty were on the other side talking, goats of all different colors were surrounding them and some others were out in the mountain.
Francis turned his car and parked it next to Leela's truck and got out. "Francis," Smitty said, "glad you're here, we found the body. The victim was only just a kid, the age is around seventeen or eighteen." Francis lifted a string of barbed wire and got into the valley. Goats were scattering all over the grass and making scared noises. If only these guys could talk they could tell us what they saw. Francis joked in his thoughts.
"The body is right next to the tree over there." Smitty then pointed to an old apple tree with unripe apples on them. A splatter of something dark was on the trunk of the tree, it was blood. Leela and Francis followed Smitty to the tree. Litters of goat feces were sprinkled all over the short grass. When they got to the tree, the first thing that Francis saw was a corpse of a goat laying on the ground, its head missing.
Francis looked around on the circle of dry dirt that surrounded the tree; small puddles of blood were in weird random places, droplets of it dyed patches of grass that used to be a bright green now having dots of red. The leaves on the tree appeared to have the same blood on its leaves also. Look's like a murder place.
Francis looked at the dead decapitated goat once more, "Where's its head?" Smitty walked to the backside of the tree.
"You may not like this scene at all though," Leela said. "I've seen it." Francis rolled his eyes at the female mutant. He walked to where Smitty was: the goat's head was nailed to the trunk of the apple tree, its ears stood flat and straight and the eyes were wide and frightened. The head was in the middle of a bloody pentagram.
"We saw the symbol of the pentagram and we had second thoughts on whether or not the killer was murdering his victims to worship the Devil." Smitty pointed out. "But we don't know that for sure though." Francis looked around.
"Where is the body?" He asked.
"It's above you…"
Francis looked up; a seventeen-year-old red-headed male corpse was hanging from the tree. His eyes were hanging out by its sockets and his stomach was cut open which showed nothing but an empty gap of muscle and flesh, then skin was leaking fluids. His chest was open and his ribcage looked like he was spatchcocked. Francis saw what he thought the boy was hanging from was a noose, only to figure out it was his intestines. In the shape of a noose.
"How are you going to get him down?" Francis asked Smitty, Smitty just shook his head.
"We don't know exactly, but us New New York police officers are thinking." Francis looked up at the body again: deep scratches were showing on the male's arms were dried with blood.
"What was the cause of death?" Leela asked.
"I figure that the killer went for the eyes first, so that way the victim couldn't see him. He then used something sharp like a knife or a scalpel because the stomach had a deep clean cut. The killer took out the organs which made the victim struggle so the perp used the same knife to cut the boy's arms, which resulted into heavy blood loss and died. He then climbed up somehow and tied his intestines to the tree and just left him there."
"What about the pentagram?" Francis pointed out.
"The perp killed a goat and just made it as a sign for a 'worship' to the sinful biblical Prince of Darkness."
Francis swallowed the lump in his throat, a chill went up his spine as he looked up to the body once more. The victim's eyes were staring down at him without moving in the wind.
When francis got home that evening, Beelzebot putted down a heavy pot of a thick soup in front of the three children. "There you are Francis," Beelzebot announced. "The kids told me that you went somewhere today." Francis walked in and gripped Robot Devil's arm.
"A little word outside please?" They entered into the living room, Francis leaned over Beelzebot and saw the kids spooning their stew. "Smitty found another body in Silver Star."
Beelzebot looked at him. "Another one? You gotta be kidding!" Robot Devil said.
"I'm serious Beelzy! The killer made a pentagram with a goat's decapitated head!" Francis urged. "And I found another trunk buried in my backyard!"
Robot Devil backed away from Francis with a few steps. "Your kidding…"
"I'm not Beelzy! I put it in the shed, that creepy plush bunny is not alone! This coffin was different, it even has a odd name also!" Beelzebot's face went face and he stubbornly crossed his arms.
"Francis, I have worried about you ever since last year. With Yuki and Leela and Amy-this is something dangerous Francis!"
Yuki spooned the stew into their bowl and listened to the conversation, but couldn't hear very well enough and turned to Ying. "What do you think they're talking about Ying?" Yuki asked. Ying shrugged and put her full bowl down.
"Apparently, from what I'm hearing, Francis went to Silver Star today Yuki." Ying said.
"What's Silver Star? I never heard of that place before."
Ying rolled her eyes. "Silver Star is a small town that is at least ten miles away from New New York, it's thirty if you count the city. A kid disappeared from that town a few days ago, his name was Anthony."
At dinner, it was very quiet and no one spoke up. Keong was in his high chair and eating his mashed peas and carrots. Ying looked at Yuki and Yuki looked at Ying.
"Hey Francis," Ying spoke, Francis looked at her. "Do you mind if me and Yuki go somewhere tomorrow?"
"Ummm...where exactly?" Francis questioned Ying.
"To Central Park, we might spend the whole day there." Ying smiled at Francis, who seemed to not buy it.
"I don't believe you." Robot Devil then scoffed and slapped Francis' shoulder.
"Francis!" Robot Devil scolded at him with a firm tone, he turned to Ying with a smile. "That's a great idea Ying, at least that's a better idea to get out of the house. Do you want me to drive you there?" Ying then started to stammer.
"No! I mean-we could take the bus! I have some money." Ying said, Robot Devil looked at her.
"Are you sure? I'm happy to drive you there you know."
"No, really, but thanks!" Ying then got up. "Can I be excused please?"
"You barely ate anything Ying," Robot Devil stated.
Ying shook her head. "I'm not hungry." Ying then grabbed Yuki's arm and jolted her out of her seat and made it to the guest bedroom where Yuki complained.
"Ying! I wasn't finished!" Yuki scolded, Ying was stuffing something into a small bag. "And what was the big deal about lying to Francis about going to Central Park huh?"
Ying groaned loudly. "Ugh! I lied to him so we have an excuse to go to Leela's dum-dum!" Ying gestured rudely. Yuki sat on her bed confused.
"Isn't that running away? We could get in big trouble…"
"We're not running away Yuki," Ying said firmly. "We're going to Leela's place so we can ask her to come to the Smith residence with us!" Yuki gasped in a shocked way.
"Wouldn't she get mad at us and call Francis to pick us up?" Yuki asked.
"Nonsense, don't worry about it." Ying tied up the bag and put it in the drawer. "I think my plan would go great!"
Ying knocked on the door of Leela and Amy's apartment. Yuki had the bag over her shoulder and a flashlight sticking out of her pocket. The door opened and the person who opened it was Amy.
"Oh, hey Yuki and Ying!" Amy greeted the cousins. "What are you doing here? It's not the weekend you know." Ying laughed lightly.
"We just came by to ask you something," Ying said. "Is that alright?"
Amy scoffed it off. "Uh, yeh! Come on in!" Amy said and opened the door wider to them, they went inside and saw Leela at the kitchen grasping a cup of coffee in her hands.
"Hey you two! Come sit down, do you want anything?" Leela gestured to the girls, but they refused the offer.
"We're okay Leela." Yuki said and sat on the couch and placed her bag on the table in front of her. "Hey Leela, can we tell you something?" Leela grabbed a chair and sat down.
"Sure, anything, is it a secret? 'Cause I can keep secrets." She put her lips to the mug.
Ying replied; "We went to the Smith residence the other day and explored it inside. It was really cool!" Leela choked on her coffee and spat it out back into the mug.
"You what?!" Amy exclaimed.
Leela sighed. "I knew something like this would happen…" She muttered and put her coffee down. "Girls, what you did was very dangerous! I even can't believe you even went in there!" Both girls sulked and had her heads down, but then Leela spoke in a soft tone. "But...it was very adventurous of you to explore it…" The girls went up in shock and saw Leela smiling at them.
"Aren't you supposed to be mad at us?" Yuki asked.
"I'm a little upset, but not mad." Leela sat right next to them. "Well? You look like you want to ask me something."
Without hesitation, Ying then asked: "Do you want to explore the Smith residence with us?!" Leela jumped back a little, but then looked at her.
"Are you prepped up for anything dangerous?" Leela said with authority and a smirk. Ying pulled out her Tokarev gun.
"Yep!"
"Then we're ready."
Leela parked her truck in the entrance of the Smith residence, the sky was very gloomy and grey like a bloodhound and was looking like thunder and lightning. Leela and Amy along with Yuki and Ying got out, Fry was also with them because he wanted to be part of the fun. Ying had her bag over her shoulder and a flashlight with them. Fry, who usually has his red jacket on him, had a flannel this time and was shivering slightly.
Leela chuckled and zipped up her light green jacket, "Should've kept the red one on Fry." Leela giggled, Fry then argued with her.
"Hey, it's not my fault! Bender kept using it for oven rags whenever he bakes his nasty-ass food all the time!" Fry pointed out to Leela who rolled her monoeye in sarcasm. They got to the first gate and tried to get inside, only to be stopped by an unfamiliar voice behind them, whose tone was in disappointment.
"Well, well, well…" said the voice, they all turned around and saw Francis, who had his arms crossed and his leg propped up against his car. Beelzebot was with him, but was not disappointed. "Look who decides to lie to me and run off with their second set of babysitters, how very mannerful of you…" Ying turned and saw Francis and gasped slightly.
"Francis! How did you follow us?"
He rolled his cybernetic eyes. "Uh, I drove to where you were going?" He suggested and walked to Ying. "I can't believe you lied to us about going to Central Park! You are in so much trouble young lady!" Beelzebot walked to Francis and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Francis, don't be mad at them, they must have a reason why." Leela leaned over and pointed to the back of the car.
"Francis, what is that in the back of your car?"
Francis walked to his car and pulled out a two-foot gold coffin, "You mean this? I found another plush in my backyard. I haven't opened the coffin yet." Yuki stared at the different coffin with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. There's another plush?! She ran over to Francis and quickly grabbed the coffin out of his clamps. "Woah, Yuki…"
Yuki wasted no time and setted the coffin down on the hood of the car and open the lid of the gravely coffin. Inside, a bear plush was staring up at Yuki, it's features were the same as Plushbun's; the sewing seams, the hands, the grin and eyes, everything. The bear appeared to be wearing a big black bowtie and a small miniature black top hat. It's ears were round and brown. The patches that contained purple polka dots on Plushbun were inside brown with stripes. It had the same four-pointed star eyes like Plushbun.
Yuki looked at the label on the top of the coffin: Plushbear. Yuki picked up the bear and held it out in her hands.
"There's another one?!" Ying exclaimed, having a hand over her mouth. Yuki gasped in remembrance and put the bag she was carrying and got out one thing from her bag that Ying didn't know that she brought with her, Plushbun. Yuki setted Plushbun next to Plushbear, a thought came to her mind. They're like twins...but not identical.
"Was this from the backyard?" Yuki asked, Francis just nodded. Yuki then quickly putted the two plushies in her bag and zipped it up. "Okay, let's go."
"Now you hold on just a second youngling." Francis said, "We're coming also."
They got to the second entrance of the second golden gate and pushed it open. "It looked nicer before I blew it up." Francis said, looking around at the outside. The group of seven went inside and Ying announced with a full tone:
"Welcome to the inside of the Smith residence! Be careful with your step folks!" Fry looked around in amazement.
"Wow! So this is what the inside of a loan shark's house looks like!" The tile floors were dirtied with dust and a few leaves were inside. The stairs in front of Fry looked old and untouched. "They must've left the furniture behind also,"
Ying looked at Fry. "Fry, no one has ever been inside this house in a year. So nothing was taken or stolen at all."
"Right." Suddenly, everyone stopped at their tracks and looked worried. They weren't alone. A beam of light was rushing out of the hallway. "Oh crap!" Fry said, looking worried. "It must be a security guard!" Footsteps were receding then stopped, the beam was directly looking at them. Causing them to squint.
A voice spoke up from the light. "Hey! What are you doing here?" A firm man's voice asked them. The man turned off the light so they could see him better. It was a man, who had bronze sleek hair and a frown on his face of disapprovement. A scar was on the right side of his face below his eye, his arms crossed.
"You know, I could have you arrested for trespassing and breaking and entering. But I'm nice enough to do that." The man said and put his flashlight away. He looked at Leela. "Now what's a group of you adults…" He spotted Yuki and Ying. "...And kids, doing here in this building?"
Leela spoke first. "Sir, we just wanted to have a look around the place and we'll leave, I swear!" Leela begged.
"Yeah, Leela is saying the truth!" Fry defended her. The man smiled in a somewhat eerie way.
"Okay, okay, I'll let you look around the 'amazing palace' for just a bit. Then, you leave?" THey all nodded. The man then showed his tag on the left side of his uniform. "The name's Frederick," Frederick said. "And I'll be your 'tour guide' for the evening…"
Francis looked at Frederick with an uneasy feeling in his metallic body. The way that the security guard was looking at them was creepy to him. Something isn't right about Frederick… Francis thought. His face looks...almost like me...but, different. The scar and the tone gives it off.
"This here is the enchanted hallway of the Donbot's mansion." Frederick said with sarcasm in his voice. "If you look to your right folks, you can see windows everywhere…"
"Sir-Frederick-are there any places that could be interesting?" Leela interrupted Frederick who turned around and looked at her.
"Well...there is one, but it's off limits. Forever!" Frederick stated. "Some idiot blew it up I believe." Francis slitted his eyes angrily at the security guard. "But I can take you guys there if you want." Frederick then guided them to a broken door with concrete steps showing the basement. "Watch your step now."
They got to the bottom of the stairs and saw that everything in the basement hadn't changed at all. It stays the same as it was a year ago. Francis was behind Frederick when he saw something: a small short line was across Frederick's cheek that ended to his ear. He, Francis, was the only one who saw this. This creeped out Francis a lot. Frederick's eyes then darted to the corner to where Francis was and Francis pretended he saw nothing at all. Which made Frederick stop looking suspicious at him.
Frederick walked up the concrete stairs and announced; "All right y'all! It's time for the special part of the final tour; leaving!" Without the sounds of disappointment they got up the stairs and walked toward the end of the hall.
Yuki was walking behind the group until she heard something from behind her. It sounded like something was dragging against the wallpaper of the hallway. She darted from her group and turned to the corner of the hallway. Beelzebot was walking in the hallway with his hand on the wall, his hand dragging. Yuki had forgotten about her group and went to chase Beelzebot.
"Beelzy! What are you doing silly, our group is that way!" Yuki said and pointed to the hallway, but Beelzebot didn't listen to her and kept walking away from her. Yuki giggled silently and began to walk behind him from a three-foot distance until she was following him into a dark hallway with one window showing.
"Wait up Beelzy!" She whispered loudly before they were almost to the window. Yuki then fastened her pace and stretched out her arms before running up to him and hugging Robot Devil. "Gotcha!" Yuki shouted and tightened her arms around his waist. She then smelled something rotten and decomposed, which was coming from Beelzebot when he stopped. A low snarl was from him.
Yuki then whimpered and released him. "Beelzy…?"
She then saw that Robot Devil was in the moonlight when she saw that the robot she was hugging wasn't Beelzebot...only it looked like Robot Devil. His back had razor sharp blades sticking out with dry oil streaking him. His tail was limped. Only when he turned around to face Yuki when she stumbled and whimpered and tried to get back from the imposter. The doppelganger of Beelzebot had three sharp long silver talons for fingers instead of red short one, the split in between his sphere body was twisted and damaged. The face he had was terrifying, the corners of his mouth were split wide to show a row of sharp metal bloodied teeth. One of his horns was snapped off and was hanging, his eyes were different: one of them was perfectly normal while the other one was cloudy and blind. The lower sphere of his body had a ripped gaping hole which was full of many never-ending rows of circling teeth. A second mouth. Many parts like his legs and arms were spewing out sharp metal and wires.
The twisted Beelzebot was looking down at Yuki before he drooled red saliva from his mouth before shrieking at Yuki, who was screaming for help.
