File Three: A Haunted Mansion Murder Case

The morning sun filtering through the windows prompted a pair of blue eyes to shut tight, trying to block out the light. Soon, he declared it a lost battle and let one of them crack open, looking blearily around the room.

So I'm back in my room...

For a little while he laid there, racking his mind to remember how he had gotten there, when he remembered having been reading at the library downstairs. Soon, the events of last night filled his mind, and he couldn't help but blush a little, undoubtedly embarrassed of acting like a child… Even though he was one.

Sitting up, the child yawned loudly. He must have carried me after I dozed off last night, he mused, stretching himself.

Though he would never do it out loud, there was something he had to admit ─ he felt so much more rested than he had ever been in that entire week. He didn't notice the small smile that was drawn in his face as he hopped off the bed, heading downstairs to have some breakfast.

His eyes caught something as soon as he reached the doorway, causing him to freeze in his place, gaping at a certain something.

So the blue suitcase was Shinichi's… and the pink one belonged to Ran, right?

… Right?

"Good morning, Conan." He didn't even react when Shinichi ruffled his hair. "Did you sleep well-?"

"... Just one quick question."

"Huh?"

"Did either Ran-neechan or you bring more than one suitcase each?"

"Of course not. We weren't going to stay long, after all."

"Then..." A shaky finger pointed at the red suitcase timidly standing in the corner of the room. "Whose is that one?"

"... Eh?"

"It's yours, Co-chan." He felt hands resting on his shoulders and his mother's cheerful voice coming from above his head. "Your father and I had a very long talk this morning and decided it would be best for you to start elementary school in Japan!"

Conan had only one thought going through his mind at the moment. "... What?"

At the clear confusion that her youngest was going through, Yukiko smiled, kneeling down in front of him. "I know how hard this year has been on you," she said, with an unusually gentle tone. "A fresh start could do some good to you."

The kid found himself unable to emit any kind of reply, aware that the woman was right. Living in America had not been easy, especially when he was the Japanese four-eyed kid with the weird name...

And sometimes, kids could be pretty cruel.

"But Mom!" Shinichi wasn't so quiet, however. "I'm only fifteen. You can't expect me to take care of a child all by myself!"

Conan snorted at that. "I'm pretty sure I can take care of myself far better than you."

"I can-!"

"I bet you can't even cook for yourself."

"W-Well..."

"Just one more thing," their smiling mother interrupted the duo before they could continue. "Since it might be difficult for Co-chan to live a normal life sharing a name with a famous novelist and an actress like myself, we decided that, for now on, his surname will be Edogawa."

...

"What?!"

Shinichi had been rather vocal throughout the day, opposing their parents' unreasonable decision. Conan, on the other hand, didn't think much of it. Even for his parents' standards, changing his name and enrolling him into a school in an entirely different country in a span of days was a bit too much. He genuinely thought they wouldn't go along with it.

Except that his parents really went along with it.

It was an almost unbelievable feat, truly. One day he was Kudo Conan, a child living in America with his ridiculously rich parents and the other he was Edogawa Conan, the new kid in Teitan Elementary School, in Japan.

Honestly, he didn't want to know what kind of friends his father had called to make all of that happen.

"Hey, Conan-kun." Barely a day after he had arrived, a girl of his age was at his desk, trying to convince him to do something that Conan was pretty sure he didn't want to do. "Go ghost hunting with us!"

Of course. This girl… Conan gave her a blank stare. What was her name again?

"Give it up, Ayumi." A boy with a large complexion crossed his arms in front of his chest. "There's no way he'll be useful to us!"

"But Genta-kun, you and I won't be enough."

Ah, Yoshida Ayumi and Kojima Genta... Right.

Ghost hunting, though... He really, really, didn't want to go. Abandoned or not, sneaking into someone else's property was still a crime and could get them into big trouble.

Even more considering these two. Conan might not know a lot about them ─ hell, he didn't even remember their names until a second ago ─ but he could tell they were a pain just by looking at them.

Considering the way Ayumi just let out a piercing scream, frightened at the thought of evil spirits roaming around in the house, he could easily picture her doing the same inside the property, thus alerting the neighbors about their presence. Genta seemed to be loud by nature, so a similar outcome was to be expected.

"That's all make believe," a boy commented, as he closed a science book he had been previously reading. "In this modern age of science, the only ghosts and monsters are in manga and on TV!"

That one was Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko, Conan remembered easily this time. He actually didn't dislike that one kid in particular, since he was smart and quite logical, a good change from the obnoxious and loud nature of the children Conan was used to being around…. Even if he was a bit of a nerd.

"Then, come with us to prove that ghosts aren't real!" Genta shouted at him.

"Eh? I have to go, too?" Mitsuhiko sighed, tiredly.

Conan would have been lying if he said he couldn't empathize with him.

"Conan-kun, you believe what I said, right?" The girl leaned closer, expectantly looking at him.

"That's hard to say for sure..." He trailed off when he spotted the dejected expression on Ayumi's face, and then the murderous glare Genta sent his way. Even Mitsuhiko gave him a disappointed look. "But I think that you are telling the truth, Yoshida-san."

The truth from her point of view, at least...

Ayumi visually brightened at those words, and Conan mentally sighed in relief. Genta, feeling satisfied with that answer, pumped his fist in the air.

"Alright then," he declared. "After school, we'll get ready and rush to that house!"

"Yeah!'' The girl cheered, raising Conan and Mitsuhiko's hands in the air, against their wishes.

Conan said nothing. There's no way I'm taking part in this. Tonight, he decided, would read a book, then go to sleep early and pretend this didn't happen. He hadn't promised anything, after all.

And so he did, except that he woke randomly in the middle of the night, mostly confused about what had roused him. It certainly hadn't been a nightmare or some sort of physical discomfort.

Blindly, his hand searched for his glasses and, once they were in place, he snatched his phone. The screen didn't light up when he flipped it open, so he figured the battery might have died at some hour in the night.

I must have forgotten to charge it.

With a sigh, he got up from bed and went looking for a charger which he eventually found inside the pocket of his black windbreaker ─ not that he remembered how exactly that had ended up there.

Suddenly steps echoed down the hall, passing past his bedroom door. At first, he paid no mind to that, figuring that his brother had gotten up to go to the bathroom or something, but then he realized he could hear something else. Shinichi was speaking… Was he talking with someone else?

Curiosity took the best of him ─ he pressed his ear against the door.

He's on the phone, he realized. So that's what woke me up.

"Alright, I understand." Conan didn't think he had heard him use such a serious voice. "I will go right away."

Go? This late at night?

Without even pausing to think it twice, the child hastily changed out of his pajamas. By the time he had put on the same jacket from before, he could hear Shinichi leaving the house. Making as little noise as he could, Conan hurried downstairs and carefully opened the front door.

He spotted Shinichi walking down the street a safe distance away, a focused frown carved into his features. What is he doing? Pulling his hood over his head, he started to casually follow him wherever he was going.

I look like a stalker. But he wasn't. He was not a stalker ─ he repeated that in his mind, repeatedly, like a mantra.

After what it seemed like hours, the teenager stopped walking. A park? Conan was beyond confused, blinking as he watched his brother sitting on a bench, his hands neatly folded on top of his lap as he seemed to wait for something.

His hands are shaking. Conan almost didn't want to know what ─ or who ─ he could possibly be waiting for. Why are they shaking?

Nevertheless, the kid continued to watch from his hiding spot behind a tree. He continued to observe the older Kudo, who did nothing but sit there, quietly still. That was, until he suddenly raised his head, alerted by something.

Someone sat beside him. In the darkness of the night, Conan didn't get to see anything other than his unnaturally long silver hair, or that he was dressed all in black, as if obsessed with that color.

Or his terrifyingly cold eyes. Why would he meet with someone so scary?

Not a word was exchanged until the moment the silver-haired man pulled out a picture from his coat. Conan couldn't see it from his spot.

"The name is Watanabe Satoshi. Thirty-two."

Shinichi's eyes barely moved away from the picture, only narrowed slightly. Without fully noticing, the little boy leaned forward a bit, straining his ears to hear better, and watched his brother's mouth opening to speak.

"Hey, kid!" His blood froze. Spinning around so quickly that almost made him dizzy, he spotted a man running towards him. "What are you doing?!"

He was big, used sunglasses even if it was late into the night, and wore black clothes as well ─ that was all he observed, since he immediately darted away at the sight of him. Hurried steps rang in his ears, letting him know that the man was chasing after him. That alone was more than enough to convince him to move even faster.

Despite his much shorter legs, Conan proved to be much quicker than that man and, eventually, he lost sight of him. But that didn't mean that he was safe.

The darkness was prominent around him, hiding everything away from sight. For a moment, he considered himself very fortunate for that, since he was wearing black clothes, making him hard to spot, but then realized that his chaser was also dressed in that same color. He hoped he could spot him if he got close.

"Where are you, little boy?!" His heart skipped a beat when he heard the voice coming closer. "I'm not going to do anything to you, I promise."

As if I would believe that!

Frightened, the kid stepped backwards and away from the source of the sound, only for his back to collide against a rather hard, sturdy surface. A tree. He blinked at the large tree standing right behind him for a second until an idea popped into his mind.

He had no other choice. Here goes nothing. So he grabbed onto the lowest branch and pulled himself up, survival instincts kicking in and adrenaline pumping through his entire body to help him climb faster.

"Come out." Not even a second after he had reached the top, he made out the silhouette of the man, looking around for him, and standing right beside the tree he had chosen as a hiding spot.

Please don't look up. Please don't look up. Please, don't look up...

"I just want to talk."

The way his gun clicked and his lips curved into a sinister smile told the child otherwise, however. Despite the undeniable fear he was feeling right now, he kept perfectly still and held his breath ─ in the silence of the night, even the shift of his clothes against the leaves would give away his position.

After what it had felt like days, the man scowled and continued his way, probably to look for him somewhere else ─ only then did Conan let out a shaky breath. Even so, he didn't move until several minutes later. Once he was absolutely certain that he was away, he climbed down.

As soon as his feet hit the ground, the young boy took off running. He didn't stop, he didn't look back. Just forced his legs to move forward. I need to get home… I need to get back home right now!

In the back of his mind, he cursed himself from following his brother so far into town. He had to get away, get back home right now. Get away from the darkened streets, and the sight of those scary men.

He didn't know why, but those people were extremely dangerous ─ Conan could tell. So why? Just like his little legs were moving as fast as they could, his mind wouldn't stop running, searching for an answer that, he guessed, he wasn't going to find any time soon.

His brother was clearly involved with them, in some way, and he couldn't explain it.

Unless… Was he…?

There's no way. His eyes shut tightly while he shook his head from side to side. He would never-!

But all his thoughts were cut short when he collided into something, prompting him to fall on his back. Groaning in pain, the boy sat up and massaged his hurting head, opening his mouth to apologize to whoever he had just ran into.

"Hey, watch where you are going-!" At the familiar voice, his mouth clicked shut. "Wait, it's Conan!"

His eyes blinked open instantly, and was beyond shocked to see Genta, sitting on the ground just like he was. Mitsuhiko and Ayumi moved closer, looking almost as surprised to see him there as he felt. For a moment he just stared at them blankly, wondering what they were doing in a place like that, until he remembered their plans for tonight.

Which he had tried to ignore.

Ironically, he was there. Sitting right in front of the very same haunted house, he certainly had no wish of breaking in. Just my luck. He sighed, standing up and looking at them to tell them he was just on his way back home and leaving.

Until it dawned on him that, on his desperate way to lose sight of that man with the gun, he had ended up on the other side of town. He would need to walk a long way until he could get back home.

If those men are still around... He frowned a bit. … staying in plain view could be very dangerous.

Maybe, just maybe, a little ghost hunt was all he needed to stay out of sight for a bit.

"Conan-kun!" So when Ayumi beamed, he said nothing. "I knew you would come!"

Not that I intended to. The boy laughed awkwardly, deciding to go along with it, and to ignore the way his heart pounded painfully against his ribcage.

"Alright, now that everyone is here, let's see what you guys brought." The bigger boy declared, waving the bat he was carrying around ─ Conan took a step back, fearing that he would hit his head, again. "I brought a metal bat to beat the snot out of those ghosts!"

Aren't ghosts supposed to be incorporeal?

"I brought candies, in case we get hungry." Ayumi smiled as she held up her bag, filled with sweets and every single cavity-inducing snack anyone could think of.

"I brought flashlights for each of us and a compass so we don't get lost." Mitsuhiko showed his stuff as well.

Can you really get that lost in a house?

"What about you, Conan-kun?"

Conan flinched. "I, uh..." He rummaged through his pockets for a moment, until he found something. Smiling a bit, he brought his phone ─ which he still had on him, apparently. "I brought my phone."

Ayumi blinked, staring at the device. "But, Conan-kun..." Her head tilted, confusion evident in her every expression.

Mitsuhiko gave the boy a clueless look. "It's not charged."

"Well..." Indeed, he hadn't gotten to it. "I only realized that on my way here..."

Scoffing, Genta crossed his arms in front of his chest. "It's not our fault if you get killed."

Please. His eyebrow twitched slightly. Like any of those things would be of any help against a ghost.

Considering that ghosts existed in the first place, anyway.

"That's right!" The girl was clearly concerned. "If you're not careful, you'll be eaten!"

… Do ghosts even have to eat?

Conan wisely kept all those thoughts to himself as he followed Genta, who claimed to have found a secret entrance ─ which was strange to the child, to say the least. Who would build a secret entrance to their own house? he wondered briefly, but then shrugged it off, realizing that people could have weird quirks, and his parents were proof of that.

So, after giving a brief, last glance over his shoulder, the boy followed the group inside.

Getting inside the property was strangely easy. All they had to do was to crawl past the entrance ─ and, in Conan's case, ignore Ayumi complaining about her hands getting dirty ─ and they were there. The door was unlocked, too, they realized when Genta placed a hand on the handle, only to get it open with little-to-no trouble.

Peeking inside proved to be fruitless, since it was pitch black, preventing the children from seeing anything.

"H-Hey." Ayumi was scared, judging by the way her voice wavered. She had taken a step back, too. "Maybe we should go home..."

"Stupid! We have come this far already," Genta shouted at her. "If you want to go home, go by yourself."

At that, a frown appeared on Conan's face. "That was rather rude," he scolded his classmate without thinking twice. "If Yoshida-san is feeling uncomfortable, you have no right to pressure her into doing something she doesn't want to do."

"Conan-kun is right." Mitsuhiko joined in instantly and gave Genta a stern look, prompting him to wince. "You should apologize to her."

For a few seconds, the boy just glanced at the other two, mouth trying to articulate a word and failing, before his head dropped, ashamed by his actions. He gave Ayumi an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, Ayumi," He sighed, knowing he was in the wrong. "I can walk you home if you want."

"No, it's okay, Genta-kun," She waved her hands in front of her head, frantically. "I was a bit scared at first, but now I'm okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," And then she smiled brightly. "Because if I'm with you guys, there's nothing I fear. You'll protect me, right?"

Both Genta and Mitsuhiko instantly nodded, their faces reddening as a tomato. Conan just rolled his eyes and made his way inside.

I really shouldn't have said anything.

"Wait, Conan-kun!" Mitsuhiko called.

The other kids soon joined him. As they made their way further inside, the three realized that the mansion looked even creeper from the inside, and frantically waved their flashlights, hoping not to see something that shouldn't be there.

Unlike them, Conan felt much calmer now that he was inside. Haunted or not, this place definitely was much safer than the outside right now.

"Hey, it's a place to wash up!" Suddenly Ayumi chirped when she noticed the bathroom. "Lucky~!"

The boy turned to her, intending to tell her with a plain, bored tone that it was just impossible to get some water, when she turned on the tap and water actually came out. His eyes widened, and moved closer to realize that, yes, she was really washing her hands.

Conan's mouth opened. They had to run away, and this house was definitely not abandoned. Someone… Someone was living there, and...

"Conan-kun?" Finally, the girl noticed him standing there. His face was growing paler as seconds passed by. "Is something wrong?"

But then he remembered. The silver-haired man… The cold, menacing glint in his eyes… The gun in his partner's hand...

The fact that they were out there, in a park a few blocks from here...

"Don't tell me you..." Her eyes widened in fear. "Did you see a ghost?!"

"N-No, it's nothing, Yoshida-san," came his weak response. "Don't worry about it."

And so, he dumbly chose to say nothing, hoping against hope that he was only overreacting and there was some sort of mistake considering the tap water. He nodded to himself ─ because that had to be it ─ and willing that thought away from his head.

Instead, he forced himself to focus on the others, who chatted happily about being part of a role-playing game, blissfully ignorant about the situation at hand.

"Of course, I'm the knight!" Genta declared, loudly.

"Then, I'm the cute, female warrior!" Ayumi grinned.

"I'm the intelligent magic-user!" Mitsuhiko declared.

Conan just watched them by the corner of the eye, silently entertaining the thought for a moment even if he wasn't so fond of video games like those kids were. Maybe the thief? No, that doesn't sound right. Maybe I would be...

"And Conan is the villager," Genta pointed at him.

... Eh?

"Then I'm not even a part of the party, am I?" he raised an eyebrow.

"But you're an important character who gives us information."

His eye twitched a little, but he just sighed and kept walking through the corridor, and soon Genta took the front. It was short-lived, however, because the three kids quickly hid behind him when a door suddenly creaked open.

"Hey, hurry up and go check it out, villager!" Genta ordered him.

"Oh, I don't know. I thought I was an NPC," Conan crossed his arms and smirked a bit. "I think it's the heroes' job to check these things."

It was hard to keep himself from laughing when the three kids gulped and looked at each other, hesitantly. Genta was the first one to gather enough courage to see what was going on, the other two cheering from behind. He jumped right inside the room, bat ready to smack the ghost across the head.

He halted, blinked a bit, and declared, "It's just an open window."

Mitsuhiko then explained to the others that the wind probably forced the door open, prompting Ayumi to praise him, telling him he sounded like a detective. Conan just stared at them, blankly. He doesn't, he thought, watching as Mitsuhiko excused himself to the bathroom, before his eyes traveled to the window in question, when it hit him.

The next second, he was crouching, frantically looking for something on the floor. It's completely dry. His eyes opened wide. It's raining outside. Why isn't it wet?

Realization fell on him like a bucket of ice. The window had definitely been opened recently. "We have to leave, now." He couldn't ignore this any longer, so he stood up suddenly, startling the other two. "This is dangerous."

"What do you mean, Conan-kun?"

"This house is not abandoned." That was all he told them, before taking off running. "You two get out of here, I will go search for Tsuburaya!"

Before they could even reply, the boy was gone. Ayumi and Genta exchanged worried looks, which soon turned into complete horror when they heard a scream which belonged to Mitsuhiko, without a room of doubt.

"Genta-kun, where are you going?!"

Ayumi found herself all alone after that.

Conan just ran faster at the sound, waving his flashlight around in search of his classmate ─ when he realized there was no trace of him in the bathroom, he had panicked and set out to look for him all by himself. Before long, he had found himself in an old study ─ dusty bookshelves, and a lone framed photograph standing in the middle of a desk were all that the kid took notice of.

Curiosity took the best of him, so he stopped to observe the old photo of a family of three ─ mother, father and son, all happily smiling at the camera. Come to think of it, Yoshida-san commented something about a crime committed in this house… The man had been murdered, and the killer had never been found. Because of such a tragedy, his son and wife had moved somewhere else.

Or did they?

He dropped the photograph the instant Genta's scream filled his ears, and rushed out of the room, desperately hoping that he wouldn't hear Ayumi's scream next.

This is my fault, all of it, he thought, gritting his teeth as he willed his feet to move faster. If I hadn't been so dumb, so selfish...

He shook his head, in an attempt to get rid of those thoughts that weren't helping his case. It didn't matter now ─ all that did was finding them as soon as possible.

It didn't take him long to find Ayumi. She was all alone and frozen in fear in the middle of the corridor. Soon, he realized why she was so terrified ─ someone was coming.

So, in a swift motion, Conan ran up to her and pulled her into hiding, hand firmly placed over her mouth so she wouldn't scream. She initially panicked, but then calmed down when she saw him. He didn't move his hand, though, just watching a woman passing by, pushing a trolley and carrying a candle. Once she left, Conan let out the breath he didn't know he was holding and released the girl.

"I-It's a ghost," she whimpered.

"No, it's a person." He frowned. Which is worse, actually.

Conan followed her, with Ayumi close behind him, and peered around the corner. There was no trace of the woman, and the trolley was there, empty and alone. The girl claimed that she really was a ghost until Conan found a trap door.

Now, the boy didn't know what he was expecting, but a cell room hadn't crossed his mind.

Yet there they were, standing in front of a man, covered in filth and hair so long it seemed like it hadn't been cut in ages. He was weeping so intensely he didn't even take notice of the children.

They heard the woman coming, so they hurried up to hide behind a locker, listening as she pleaded with her son to 'hold on a little more' so he could finally be free. He only wailed louder in response, throwing the food she had just brought him away from him.

I need to call the police. Conan nodded to himself, before cursing inside his head when he remembered his phone was dead. His eyes roamed around, searching for something that could be of help, when he noticed a socket in the wall.

Please, tell me it's still there. His hand slid into his other pocket and mentally sighed in relief when he fished out a phone charger.

On the other hand Ayumi, frightened as she was, stepped back, accidentally knocking a broom that was behind her, which he luckily caught with his foot while resting a hand on the locker to keep himself from losing his balance. That caused, however, the bucket on top of it to fall.

It hit the floor, clanging loudly.

At that moment, Conan knew they were dead.

"It looks like there are more rats in addition to the two from earlier." The air froze inside his lungs when he heard the woman speaking. "Come on out. It's no use hiding!"

His eyes fell on Ayumi, who just stood there, paralyzed with fear, and stared at him for a second, before they slid close. Sighing, he turned to her and placed the phone charger inside her hands. Her mouth hung open, head snapping to him to see him nodding at her with a soft smile. He stepped away from their hiding spot right afterwards.

Gulping back her tears, she plugged the phone in.

"Look who's talking." He smirked at the definitely insane woman, praying inside his mind that it didn't look as forced as he thought it did ─ despite everything he was terrified, especially after spotting the very sharp knife she was holding.

At her confused gaze, the boy explained everything he had deducted ─ the crime that her son had committed five years ago, and that she was hiding him so he wouldn't go to prison. Then, by the corner of his eye, he spotted Ayumi with his phone in hand, and assumed she had dialed the police, thus letting them hear everything from him, instead of taking and giving herself away. Good.

"W-Who are you?!"

"Edogawa Conan." The boy shrugged. "Just an elementary school student."

Her grip on the knife tightened, causing him to wince and close his eyes. The police are coming. He took a deep breath, not moving from his spot. Now there's a chance… A chance for Yoshida-san to get saved.

Honestly, that was enough for him.

"So you hid your son inside the basement of this very same house, the old house in the 4-chrome area." All that was left was to get the police to know where exactly they were. "Because your husband's killer is none other than-"

"Shut up... SHUT UP!"

Before he knew it he was five feet off the ground, air knocked off his lungs as he hit the wall. Her nails were painfully digging in his shoulder, keeping him in place, but that wasn't the most disturbing fact. Not even close. It was her eyes ─ the wild, crazed stare shook him to the core.

She raised her knife, and he knew. He knew everything was over.

But then, Ayumi's scream filled the room, and the iron grip on him weakened. Alarmed, he searched for the source and found Ayumi standing behind the woman, with a broom between shaking hands. Did she… hit her in the head?

A child's strength was not enough to knock a full-grown woman out, but it was enough of a shock to allow him to grab onto her arm and kick the knife away from her grasp.

Once free from her, he ran up to Ayumi. The two of them looked, frightened beyond a doubt, back at the woman, while they backed off.

They had hit the wall. She was getting closer. It didn't take a genius to know that there was no escape.

But just before she attacked them, her son screamed and pleaded with her not to kill them. Luckily for the both of them, she listened and stopped in her tracks.

The man then broke out crying, his heart wrenching sobs drowning the sounds of the sirens that gradually got closer to their position.

Conan sighed tiredly, letting himself plop down on the dirty floor beneath him. It was finally over.

A/N:

Published: 02-21-2020

Last edited: 01-10-2021

Based on A Haunted Mansion Murder Case.