Requiem of Reality

A door is heard opening as a man, who seems to be in his middle ages, is seen walking into the house. His pale face is adorned with a crafty smirk. He stops at the door of the TV lounge and enters it. The room was enveloped in such darkness that you couldn't discern what was in front of you. Only a little bit of moonlight was coming through the window.

The man reached for a switchboard on the wall and pressed a button

The lights turn on and he goes to sit on the sofa he usually sits on but to his dismay, someone he didn't recognise was sitting on it. The unknown man casually sits on the sofa, with his right leg resting over the other, his fingertips gently touching and eyes closed.

The unknown man sitting on the sofa stayed silent for a few seconds but for the man that was standing, those few seconds felt like hours as he tried to reason on who the man could be and how he got into his house. "I have finally caught you 𝘑𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯, or should I call you Mr. John White? You got too comfortable and slipped up big time. Though even if you hadn't, I still would have caught you, granted it would have taken a little longer." His tone was calm and full of confidence. The man now identified as John white takes out a gun from his pocket and points it at the man sitting on the sofa. "How! How did you find me- No! Who are you!" John white yelled.

"How about you try and figure it out?" The man sitting on the sofa slowly parted his closed eyes, behind his eyelids crimson red eyes could be seen which would send a chill down the spine of anyone who looked at them for the first time. He parted his fingers which were touching each other and stood up from the sofa. Paired with his raven black hair and cool demeanour, it would make a person think that the man was staring right through their soul.

"Raven black hair paired with crimson eyes that could never be mistaken for someone else's, you- you're 𝘚𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘎𝘢𝘻𝘦!" The criminal knew that he couldn't escape him.

"Correct! Now, it's best if you start talking and tell me where you take the people that you abducting."

"Never!"

"Well, it doesn't matter because the police should be here soon."

Outside sirens could be heard blaring and a few seconds later, multiple police officers rushed into the room with their guns pointing at the criminal. Knowing he got caught, John White dropped the gun in his hand and raised his hands in the air.

From behind the police officer came an inspector in his mid-fifties and approached the crimson-eyed man. "Thanks for helping me with this case Otto, it would have taken a long time to catch that bastard if you hadn't helped."

"No need to thank me Mr. Jeffrey, father would have wanted me to help you." spoke the raven-haired man whose name was now revealed to be Otto.

"Ah yes good ol' James Williams, a great man he was. It is a pity he had to die young. I can't believe it's already been seven years since his death. It's his anniversary tomorrow right- Good lord! What's wrong!"

Their conversation was interrupted by a police officer who looked out of breath as he ran to them. "The criminal! He died!" As soon as they heard what the officer had said, both men ran towards the police car where the now dead criminal lay on the ground.

Otto began examining the body. He started by checking his pulse to make sure he was dead. Then he looked over to his face a saw foaming around his mouth which indicated it was poison. He checked if the ring he had on his left index finger had a compartment to store poison or not and checked his clothes as well.

When all failed he checked his mouth to see if he already had poison in his mouth before getting cuffed. There he noticed that one of his teeth was odd-looking. Otto inspected it closer and concluded that the poison he killed himself with was kept in a fake tooth.

"Mr. Jeffrey, I don't this is a simple abduction case. This man was prepared to die so that he wouldn't have to reveal anything. He wouldn't have done that if there wasn't anything bigger going on backstage. I believe that this case is far bigger than we think it is."

"Which tooth was it?"

"The first molar on the left side of the jaw."

The inspector cursed internally and spoke up.

"Another one that died from poisoning himself and the poison was kept in the tooth!"

"Other people have died like this?" Otto asked curiously.

"Yes, at the start when this case was first brought up and an investigation was done, two others died just like this, and the poison was in the exact molar you mentioned! This case is becoming more complicated by the second. If only James was still alive, he would have been able to solve it. Take the body to be inspected." The inspector ordered the medics that had arrived as we were talking and rubbed his eyes. "Well, I guess that is it for tonight. Tomorrow is gonna be a busy day."

"I'll leave everything to you then Mr. Jeffrey and send me the details of the other cases of suicide by this exact method." Inspector Jeffrey nodded and Otto turned to leave but stopped and looked back at the inspector. "Oh right! One more thing, please take care of the nicknames these criminals have been giving me. First, it was 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘵, then 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯, and now 𝘚𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘎𝘢𝘻𝘦. Can't these people choose nicknames that are less cringe?" Otto deadpans.

Hearing this the inspector chuckles. "Well, you have become quite the famous person, eh Otto? I remember when you were a shy little kid hiding behind James and look at you now all grown up."

"Please don't start telling those embarrassing stories from my childhood..."

"Fine fine! I won't. Well, I'll see you tomorrow at your father's grave then."

"Yes, I will see you there at 6 in the evening," Otto says and starts to walk away.

He takes out his cigarette case and lights a cigarette. "I'm almost out of cigarettes" He mutters to himself and puffs his cigarette.

After about an hour of walking, Otto arrives at his home. It was a mansion of decent size which was away from the main city.

Otto always wondered about the queer architecture of the whole world. A few decades years ago the architectural sense of people changed to Victorian-era architecture, and many other old architectural styles in different locations, because it started to gain popularity and ever since then, the architecture has been the same. Otto was always fascinated by the sudden change in the architectural sense of the world. Even though they had technology that the old eras such as the Victorian never had, they were using the old architecture which according to him was the symbol of a world that was not technologically advanced. Otto found it strange because the modern era should have had a new type of architecture, one that complimented the technology and was appropriate for it, but he wasn't complaining because the architecture before the change was too simplistic and plain. The current architecture in comparison to it was more "fun".

Otto entered the mansion and was greeted by his butler, Lloyd Finch. "Welcome home, Master Otto." Lloyd was a man who looked to be in his mid-sixties.

Going by his looks you'd think that he was like one of those characters from a novel or comic that betrays his master for his greed. Contrary to his looks, Lloyd had served Otto's father till his last breath and now was serving Otto.

Lloyd was a very loyal and capable man and had a Machiavellian brain.

Otto's father was a very wealthy man and when he died Otto was young. Seeing this opportunity, people tried to take advantage of him but Lloyd made sure no such thing happened to Otto. Otto trusted him with his life.

"A tiresome case?"

"No, more like a pain in the ass."

"Please mind your language master, Otto, you are not a child anymore. It also seems you were smoking again weren't you?"

"I won't deny that but I've reduced my cigarette consumption to one per day."

"I expect you to completely stop smoking them. They are not good for your health." Lloyd took Otto's coat and hung it on the rack. "Your admiration of Sherlock Holmes is still as high as ever. Wearing the same outfit as him when going out to solve a case."

"My respect for him will never dwindle!" said Otto enthusiastically. "I'll be going to my room now, goodnight Lloyd." Otto bid his butler farewell for the night and went into his room.

From his room, the sound of a violin playing could be heard echoing in the whole mansion. All the servants that worked there loved it when Otto played the violin because of how melodious his violin sounded. It was practically a part of his routine to play the violin before sleeping and while thinking over the facts about the cases he was solving. Soon the music played by the violin stopped, indicating that Otto had drifted into sleep. Lloyd was rather glad that Otto had finally gone to sleep as he had a habit of not sleeping till late at night when something exciting had happened.