Here’s a little bit of a mystery story I started. I wanted to release it as close to Halloween as possible, so that meant pumping it out a chapter at a time. Here’s the set-up.
Started Saturday, October 17, 2009, 11:08:39 PM
King’s Bishop
Prologue
This is The City. On a star lit autumn night, when the moon was shining bright, in October of 2009, a man walked into his living room. He bent down for a moment and lit the old brick fireplace as he had done many nights before. He stood up and looked, just looked, around the room. Taking it all in. It was a lovely room. The walls were lined with bookshelves, which, in turn, were lined with books. He walked over to the single large window and looked outside.
Outside, the leafless trees stood black. They were leafless not from the season, but from the air. The trees had long been dead, but the skinny, sickly looking branches seemed to add a certain bit of atmosphere to the house. Past the trees, he saw them. Big bulky monstrosities prowling past, back and forth. Never ceasing, never sleeping. Cars! Cars whooshing past in the smog. A brilliant white flash of light from one of the headlights shone through the window and caused the man to frown. The man reached and drew shut the thick purple curtains. Cars did not exist. Not to him, not now at least.
The man walked over to one of the bookshelves and, without even needing to look, pulled out the book he had started reading the previous night. He brought his book and sat in the old antique chair by the fire. He reached down to the small coffee table in front of him and picked up his cup of tea and a biscuit from its plate. He ate the biscuit, and then raised his cup slightly, in a toast, to the empty chair before him, and took a sip. He put the cup back on its saucer and lifted his pipe. He opened his book.
He would be dead by morning.
This is where I come in. Not- not the murdering part, though. I come in a little bit after that. As you know, my name is Rex Bishop. I’m a detective in this fine city. From an unpaid parking ticket to some sort of larger-crime-which-I-am-unable-to-think-of- right-now, no job was not too big for Detective Rex Bishop.
I woke at two in the morning to my phone ringing. I had thought that the phone company had washed their hands of me, so the sound was a pleasant surprise. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and answered the phone.
“Mmmmurrrruuuhhh?” I said.
“What? Bishop, is that you? I’ve got a case for you.”
“Oh, captain! Yes, it’s me! A case you say. I’ll be right there!” I hang up the phone and start to get dressed. After a moment, I stop and redial the phone.
“Hey, sir? It’s me again. Ummm, where is it?”
---[Vital Junk Misplaced]-- 