TUoC: Chapter 2
It was a calm night here in the little town of Peach Creek, with it currently 11:45 p.m. at night. Everyone in town was pretty much asleep at this hour. It is here where we zoom in on a neighborhood Cul-De-Sac in the suburbs of the town. Inside one of the many houses, we can see a young teenage boy, sleeping peacefully in his bed. Strangely, he wore a black beanie on his head as he slept. Soon he began to toss and turn in his sleep, he was starting to have a very vivid dream.
Darkness was all that Double D could see around him now, "W-What is this? A dream?" he questioned aloud to himself in confusion.
Suddenly, he could see something come into view. It was him as a young child, probably about six years old, lying in a metal framed bed that he was unfamiliar with. The room he was in was very barren, almost like a prison cell of some kind. He also noticed he was not wearing his beanie, revealing the scar on his forehead, along with showing more of his messy blond hair. The boy was sobbing very loudly, it seemed like he had been crying for some time now.
"Is that… me?"
There was a sudden loud noise from outside his door, startling the young child. He widened his green eyes towards his door as he noticed it was now kicked down by someone.
Two adults came rushing inside the room; two adults he was very familiar with, much to his shock, "M-Mother?! Father?!"
They both had bulletproof vests on, with the man holding a pistol as he stood by the door, on guard. The woman came over to the young child, who seemed to be extremely anxious at the sight of them. The young child held out his hand to her, with his hand starting to grow pale before he shot something out of his palm, a very tiny icicle that missed hitting its target, brushing by her long black hair, "S-Stay back!" he shouted to her.
"It's alright," the woman started to say with a smile, holding out her gloved hand to the child, "We're here to take you away from this place."
The child widened his eyes at what she said, "Really? C-Can Rini and Matt come too?" he asked.
"Of course," the woman replied, "Once we find their rooms, we will save them too. What is your name?"
"… I'm… Ed-dward," the child replied with a stutter in his name.
The woman chuckled a little, "Sounds like you added an extra D to your name, Eddward."
"Wendy, we can't be wasting too much time here," stated the man who was still on guard at the door, "We need to move, now!"
"I'm on it, Aiden," the woman replied to her partner, scooping up the child in her arms as they all ran out of the room.
As the two adults ran down the hall to get to the other children the child mentioned, they could see two adults in lab coats, a man and a woman, standing in front of the door that had the other two kids. They had a look of anger in their eyes and on their faces. They also held a pistol in their right hands.
"Do you honestly think you two can get away with our test subjects?! You damn thieves!" shouted the man in the lab coat as the woman pointed the pistol she held at Wendy and Aiden.
"W-We have to retreat!" Aiden stated to Wendy.
Wendy made a sad face, glancing down at the young child cradled in her arms, "B-But the other kids…"
"We can try again another day," Aiden retorted to her, "We can't let any of these kids get hurt in the crossfire!"
"Like hell that we'd let you leave here alive!"
A bullet soon flew from the woman's gun toward Wendy and Aiden. Thankfully, it did not hit them or the child. They soon darted off towards the exit of this horrible place, leaving behind the two scientists and the two children named Rini and Matt.
It was as the adults were running that the scenery became pitch black to Double D, with the two adults still in his vision, almost as if they were running in place in the darkness. A cold, bitter breeze soon blew by him, rushing over to the adults, freezing them in place before the ice started to form around their bodies.
Double D widened his eyes at the sight, "Mother! Father!" he cried as he ran up to them. They were completely covered in ice, almost like they had become statues.
"E-Eddward!" called out a familiar voice from behind him as Double D turned to see a dear friend of his, the love of his life, standing there in the darkness, trying to reach out her hand to him, "Please, you have to save yourself!" she continued to say to him, "Don't give up! PLEASE!"
"J-Jennifer!" Double D gasped in shock as he tried to approach her.
As he was running to her, he felt the cold, harsh breeze blow by him again, straight toward Jennifer. Double D widened his eyes as he could see Jennifer slowly start to turn into the crystal-like ice as his parents did, "I… I-I forgive you," she started to say with a smile, tears rolling down her face before being engulfed in the ice, completely enveloped her body, turning her into an ice sculpture.
Double D started to panic at the sight he was seeing, "T-This has to be a nightmare! This cannot be real!" he yelled to himself, clutching his forehead a little as he did, "Wake up Eddward! Please!"
He could feel himself fall to his knees, tears now rolling down his face, "WAKE UP FROM THIS NIGHTMARE, PLEASE!"
"DOUBLE D!"
"AH!" he yelped aloud in fright. Double D noticed both Ed and Eddy standing above him, "W-What are you two doing here?!"
"… It's passed 10 in the morning now, Sockhead," Eddy stated with an irritated look, "We were both worried that you'd gone missing like the other teens have, so we came to check on you."
It was then that Ed pointed out the obvious, "Why are you sleeping on the floor, Double D?"
"Huh?"
Double D looked around to see that he had indeed fallen out of his bed with his sheets over him, "O-Oh… It must have been because of that nightmare."
"A nightmare?" questioned Ed, "What was it about?"
"I'm not sure how to explain it, honestly…" Double D started to say before shaking the thoughts out of his head, "Whatever it was, it was just a bad dream."
"Well, that's great and all, but let's not focus on that now, okay?" Eddy stated with an irritated sigh, "We gotta meet up with everyone else at Jenna's house today, remember?"
"Yes, I know," Double D sighed, "I'll be ready as soon as I can."
"Good," Eddy nodded his head before dragging Ed out of Double D's room by his jacket sleeve, "Come on, let's leave him for now so he can get ready."
"Okay!" Ed replied before waving goodbye to Double D, "Bye for now!"
Double D waved to Ed as he and Eddy left his room, closing the door behind them as he did. He then glanced down at his right hand for a short moment, thinking about the nightmare again. He then remembered the strange thing that happened last week; when he tried to hold onto Jennifer's hand for a moment, she retracted her hand from his, saying it felt as cold as ice, which was baffling to him. His nightmare had so much ice in it as well… Was there a connection?
"S-Stop it, Eddward," Double D stated to himself, shaking his head as he tried to calm down his nerves, "It was just a dream… That's all it was."
It was now 12 pm. The heat of the summer sun was shining down on the town this Thursday afternoon. We soon see Layton driving a rental car down the street, heading for the Peach Creek police department. He had just arrived from London in Savannah, Georgia before renting a car to drive to Peach Creek, which was about an hour and a half drive from where he arrived. He came up to the police station, parking the rental car in a visitor parking place as he did.
Layton exited the car and entered the building. He could see almost everyone working tirelessly around the small police office, presumably because of the incident he was called here for.
"Pardon me," Layton started to say as he approached an officer who seemed to be less busy than everyone else, "I am looking for a detective named Nicolas Wells. Which office can I find him in?"
"Oh, his office is just down this hallway and to the right," stated the officer as they pointed to it.
Layton thanked the officer before walking off toward the detective's office. He knocked on the door of said office before a man came and answered the door. The man looked to be in his mid-thirties, he wore a beige jacket over a white t-shirt with brown pants and brown shoes. The man also looked to be very tired, having scruffy black hair and a few bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, "Can I help you, sir?" the man asked with a bit of a small, Southern drawl to his voice.
"Might you be Detective Nicolas Wells?" Layton asked the man, "My name is Professor Hershel Layton, and I was asked to come here to help with the case."
"… Oh!" the man widened his eyes with surprise, "Yes, I'm Nicolas."
Nicolas stepped out of the doorway to let Layton into his office, which he soon did. He closed the door behind him before the two of them sat down, with Nicolas sitting behind his desk.
"Sorry about that, I didn't expect you to get here this fast, Mr. Layton," Nicolas stated, "As you can see, everyone right now is very busy because of the case."
"It's not a problem at all," Layton replied to him with a small smile, "The chief inspector of Scotland Yard did mention to me some of the details yesterday. Has anything new come up between now and then?"
"Well, not exactly," Nicolas started to say with a sigh, "Forty-eight teenagers have gone missing over the past week, leaving no sort of clues on where they went. But, as of yesterday, we haven't had any new reports of anyone going missing… Let's hope it stays that way until we can find these missing teenagers."
Nicolas then grabbed a few pieces of paper off his desk, handing it to Layton, "This is a list of the missing teens we have. Look it over when you can."
"I see," Layton stated as he glanced at the list.
He could see some of the names had been highlighted. While continuing to look at the list, he could see why Nicolas had those names highlighted.
"As you can see, we had highlighted some names on the list; these missing teens lived in the same neighborhood, while the other teens are more spread out," Nicolas stated, "We were going to check in on why so many of the teens from that neighborhood, in particular, had disappeared, but then we found those twins yesterday, along with the letter requesting your help."
Layton looked up from the list, "Where might those twins be now?" he asked.
"They're currently watching TV in the room next door, which is my personal rest spot for long nights," Nicolas stated as he gestured towards the door next to him on his right, "It didn't feel right to take them anywhere else. You can talk to them right now if you wish."
"Thank you," Layton replied as he got up from where he sat and walked to the other room.
When Layton opened the door, he could see the two twins from the picture he saw yesterday, their clothes now clean from the dirt that was once there. The fourteen-year-old twins were both focused on what was on TV.
The teenage girl had long, bright red hair that was pulled back into a ponytail with a thick white ribbon. She wore a pink T-shirt that had a horizontal white stripe in the middle of it, a pair of light-colored blue jeans, and red shoes.
The teenage boy had short, dark red hair that was sort of messy and all over the place. He wore a plain, light orange T-shirt with a pair of dark blue jeans and black shoes.
As Layton approached the twins, he noticed something unusual about their hands. They both had a single, nasty-looking scar on the top of their hands; the girl had one on her right hand, while the boy had one on his left hand. He could tell the scars had been there for a very long time.
"Hello there," Layton greeted the twins, "You two must be Serena and Matthew?"
"Yes, that's us," stated the boy named Matthew as they turned their attention away from the TV, turning it down with the remote.
Serena widened her eyes at Layton, "Are you the man that was mentioned in the letter we had?" she asked.
"Yes," Layton replied with a nod of his head, "My name is Hershel Layton."
Serena made a wide smile, "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Layton!"
Layton made a small smile to the twins; he could tell that Serena was very bubbly, with Matthew being a bit quieter than his sister.
Soon Nicolas came into the room and walked up to them, "As you heard already, we found these twins yesterday morning. And, as far as we can tell, they have both lost their memories due to some traumatic event, given the condition they were in when we found them. They only know their first names because of the letter they had."
"Do you think you can help us?" Matthew asked.
"I will do the best I can," Layton stated before turning to Nicolas, "I assume there's no background information on the twins either?"
"None at all, I'm afraid," Nicolas replied.
"I see, very curious," Layton mused to himself, placing his hand under his chin to ponder, "I remember the letter also mentioning another teenager, saying that he could possibly help the twins."
"Ah, you must mean Eddward Johnson," Nicolas stated to Layton, "He and his friends were actually involved in a separate incident about two weeks ago that also caused quite a stir in the community."
"Really?" Layton questioned a little in surprise, "Do you mind giving me the details?"
"Of course. I'll go get the police reports for you about it. They're currently in another room," Nicolas replied as he walked away, leaving Layton in the room with the twins.
"Umm… Mr. Layton?" Matthew started to say to Layton, "Do you think you can keep a secret? Something very weird happened to us this morning…"
"Matt, are you sure you want to tell him about that?" Serena asked with a small gasp.
"… Yeah," Matthew replied to her with a nod, "It could help us find out who we are."
Matthew turned back to Layton, "When we both woke up this morning, I accidentally tripped and fell on my arm because I was very tired and wasn't looking at where I was going. My arm started to swell up a bit…" he then turned to Serena, "But then my sister came over and did something weird, as if on instinct," he lifted his arm that he had hurt, only to see it was not hurt at all, "She touched my arm and, before I knew it, she started to heal my wounds. The pain was gone."
"A-And that's not all!" Serena interrupted, butting into the conversation, "When we tried to see if Matthew could do the same thing I did, we burned one of Nicolas's hats that he had on display by accident! We were lucky there was a glass of water nearby to put it out. It wasn't very big."
Layton stayed silent at their statement for a moment, "Burned? You mean like as a part of a fire?"
"Yes sir…" Matthew nodded his head, holding out his hand and pointing with his index finger to demonstrate what he meant. A sudden small ember started to form at the tip of his index finger, much to Layton's surprise. The ember itself did not seem to harm Matthew at all, not even leaving any sort of burn on his skin. He then shook his hand to put out the tiny ember, "I know we don't have our memories, but I'm pretty sure this is not a normal thing anyone can do, right?"
"You're correct," Layton stated with a nod, "Does anyone else know about this?"
"No sir," Matthew shook his head, "We were unsure if should say anything about it or not…"
"And we didn't want to get in trouble for burning his hat by accident!" Serena explained.
"I see," Layton responded to them with a smile again, "Well, as long as you do not set fire to my hat, I will keep this a secret for now."
"You got yourself a deal!" Serena cheered.
A few minutes passed by before Nicolas came back into the room, he had a few folders in his hands, "This is the case files for the incident two weeks ago. We do not think it is related to the missing teens, but it can help you get some background information on the boy you need to visit, and for some of his friends as well," he said as he handed the files to Layton, "I do have to warn you, it's not for the faint of heart."
"Thank you," Layton stated to Nicolas. He walked over to a chair to read what the files had on them.
[TL; DR: These are spoilers for my story, Melancholy Times. Feel free to go read that story first… Or you can read it here and be lazy, I won't judge. It's only the important things and not the random things that happen in between said events.]
According to the report, there was an incident five months ago involving a teen girl named Zoey Wheeler and the leader of a gang in Sunflower Shoal, who was only known as Viper. Viper threatened Zoey and her family when she stumbled upon a crime scene with Viper in the middle of it. Three months later, another incident happened with Viper's gang; they targeted someone named Jennifer Glee, an autistic girl in her teens. Many members of Viper's gang took Jennifer to an amusement park by the ocean to hurt her further but were found out and stopped by the owner of said amusement park. Viper's entire gang was arrested and sent to juvie; but not Viper herself, she somehow flew under the radar and was never arrested. Wanting revenge for what happened to her gang members, Viper threatened Zoey once more to find out more about Jennifer and everything about her. Then, about two and a half weeks ago, Jennifer moved to Peach Creek along with her mom and dad, to get away from Sunflower Shoal. As they did, Viper forced Zoey to move into her aunt and uncle's house, which was not that far away from where Jennifer moved. It was while they were staying there that the two girls met three teenage boys and became fast friends with them. Their names were Ed Wendell, Eddward Johnson (or Double D, which was a nickname his friends used for him), and Eddy McGee; all three of the boys were named E-D in some way and were known as the Eds.
'That's very unusual, to have the same name and be friends because of it,' Layton thought with a bit of amusement before he continued to read the file.
A few days after the girls moved in, something was reported in the files that would soon relate to the case two weeks ago. There was an incident that happened at one of the boys' houses; Eddy's older brother, Evan McGee, had come to his house to look after his younger brother while his parents went on a sudden vacation. But it was not a friendly visit in the slightest, Evan cut Eddy's arm in a drunken rage later that night. Eddy tried to cover up what happened the next day with a bandage but was quickly found out by his friends that something was very wrong. In a fit of rage at what happened, Zoey lost her temper and tried to go after Evan, but was soon bested by him, knocking her out cold. Evan dragged her to the guest bedroom, where Eddy and Double D followed suit. Eddy told Double D to call the police, which he soon did, leaving Eddy, Evan, and Zoey alone in the guest room. Eddy and Evan fought for a short moment before Evan tied Eddy's hand and feet with an extension cord. Evan then turned his attention back to Zoey, who was still knocked out, asking Eddy a lot of questions about her, who she was, and what her age was, along with if she was Eddy's girlfriend. According to Eddy's statement, Evan made a wicked smile to him before saying, "I'll deal with you in a minute. I have something else to do first… Just watch." Realizing what Evan was about to do, Eddy tried even harder to untie himself from his binds, and he eventually did so before Evan could touch Zoey. As Evan had his back turned towards the closet to grab a bag of condoms, Eddy knocked him out with a vase that was nearby. It was a little bit later that the police came and arrested Evan for abuse and an attempt at sexual assault. Thankfully, the injuries that both Eddy and Zoey had healed quickly.
'How dreadful…' Layton thought with sadness before turning the page of the file to the real incident that the report was about.
A few days later, the news broke out that Evan had escaped from jail because of an unknown accomplice. As it turns out, it was Viper who had set him free, thinking he would help her kill Jennifer while knowing he held a grudge against her friends. Later, Jennifer was about to have a birthday party for her fifteenth birthday. Jennifer's family and friends were going to celebrate at her house. But while her parents had left to go get her cake in town, that was when Viper and Evan stuck, kidnapping both Jennifer and Zoey and taking them to the construction site nearby. Thankfully, the two criminals were spotted by Ed a few minutes earlier; he noticed the rope they had with them was from the construction site. So, when the three Eds arrived at Jennifer's house and saw Jennifer's cell phone on the ground with her nowhere in sight, they concluded that the construction site was where they took the girls. Grabbing Jennifer's cell phone, Double D and Eddy ran off to go find them while Ed stayed behind to call the police. Double D and Eddy soon found them; with Jennifer and Zoey tied up to two metal poles and Viper and Evan standing in front of them. They could see that they were hurt, with Jennifer looking the worst out of the two. Double D then thinks up a plan to distract Viper and Evan with loud noises, using some jackhammers that were nearby to get their attention, making them think some construction workers were on the site. The plan worked; the two criminals left the girls behind to see if any workers were nearby, giving Double D and Eddy the opportunity to untie the girls from the poles they were tied to. As they tried to run back to their neighborhood, Jennifer collapsed due to the injuries she received from Viper, she could not run right now. The four teens decided to try and rest in the wooden shed that was nearby, hoping Jennifer regained her strength to try and run again. As they were sitting in the shed, Double D used Jennifer's cell phone to text her mother for Jennifer, saying what was going on, where they were, and that they there were currently okay. Ten minutes passed by with the four teens sitting in the shed. They were soon found by Viper and Evan, with Viper pointing a gun she had toward Jennifer from the other side of the dirt-covered window. Double D saw the barrel of the gun in time to shield Jennifer. Viper fired the bullet, which hit Double D in his right shoulder blade, making him collapse to the ground. The two criminals then made their way into the shed, with Viper revealing that Zoey was the one who told her about Jennifer's birthday party today, much to her friend's shock and Zoey's horror. Viper handed Evan the gun she had, telling him to take care of Eddy and Zoey while she dealt with Jennifer. Evan took Eddy and Zoey out of the shed to toss them on the ground in front of him. He started to point the gun at Eddy before he was tackled to the ground by Zoey. As he tried to get back up, Zoey gave him a kick in the face, knocking him out like a light. Since Zoey knew a bit of self-defense and karate, she decided to put it to good use. Afterward, Eddy grabbed a metal pipe that was nearby and headed back to the shed where his remaining friends were, where he could see Viper holding Jennifer up by her shirt collar before tossing her aside to the wall on her right, knocking her out. Eddy then swung the metal pipe at Viper's head, which knocked her out instantly. Thankfully, it did not take long for the police and ambulance to find them. They took Double D and Jennifer to the hospital and arrested Viper and Evan for a second time.
'This is awful…' Layton thought with disbelief. He was baffled that anyone could be this heartless to someone else. He turned the page of the file once again to continue reading.
At the hospital, it was reported that Jennifer woke up rather quickly, but Double D was left in critical condition, with the doctors stating that he had lost too much blood when they took the bullet out of his shoulder. Thankfully, he was still alive, but it was very much a coinflip if he would recover or not at that point. The next day, the news reported on what happened at the construction site, much to the shock and horror of everyone in Peach Creek. It was when it was reported on TV that Double D was in critical condition, that a teen girl named Marie Kanker came to the hospital to see if they could donate their blood to help save Double D's life. Luckily, her blood type was the same as Double D's, meaning she could donate it to him without much trouble. Marie requested the hospital for her to remain anonymous to everyone, including Double D; stating it was for personal reasons. Thanks to Marie's actions, Double D recovered very quickly before things could get worse for him. The next day, he was well enough to go home, which was wonderful news to everyone. The file states that Jennifer's parents were the ones who drove him home that day, not his parents.
'That's odd, where could his parents be?' Layton thought briefly before remembering the letter that the twins had and what the chief inspector said about it, implying that whoever wrote the letter is probably deceased based on the last paragraph written down, '… I certainly hope that is not the case.'
When he finished reading the file, Layton could see there was a smaller note attached to the top of the back of the folder with a paper clip with some additional information. Apparently, Zoey's parents moved into a house next to Jennifer's house a few days after Double D returned home. According to them, it was something they were planning to do for a while, due to the increased crime rate in Sunflower Shoal. It also seemed like Zoey reconciled with her friends for her small part in what happened to Double D and Jennifer.
[The end of Melancholy Times happens here. Now, for the rest of this story to continue!]
Layton then closed the police file, glancing back towards the twins, who had gone back to watching TV for a moment, 'Seems like everyone here has been through a lot.'
He got back up to go see Nicolas in his office, "So, I assume you get the gist about the boy you'll be meeting?" Nicolas asked.
"Yes," Layton replied as he handed the police files back to Nicolas at his desk, "I'm going to take the twins with me to go see him soon. Will you allow that?"
"Of course!" Nicolas stated with a nod, "Anything to help solve this case."
Layton made a small smile, "My thanks to you, Mr. Wells."
Layton then went back to the other room where the twins were. They were both still sitting on the couch watching the TV.
"Pardon me, you two," Layton started to say to them, "Nicolas has given me permission to take you two to meet someone. We should leave to go see them soon."
"Okay!" Serena chirped with happiness, a big smile came across her face, "It was starting to become boring, staying in here."
Layton only smiled at them in response. A lot of questions still need to be answered so far, but he was confident that these mysteries would be solved… Every puzzle has a solution, after all.
Author's Note (June 30th, 2023): Man, this chapter was still all about the exposition, wasn't it? Sorry about that. The next chapter will probably be a lot shorter, but I'm not sure.
Chapter 2's Song Title: "Reach Out To The Truth" - Persona 4