BBDW 21 [Black Butterfly] - Nevereverland

Section 21 (UNEDITED)

The weather wasn’t very good.

After parting with Tim and returning to his old apartment, Jude took off his jacket and threw it on the sofa. The damp smell of summer had permeated the house. Did I not ventilate it that often? While opening the window, Jude looked up at the sky and gave up. Dark clouds were so thick that even the moon was invisible in the dark night sky. The rain-smelling wind brushed past his nose.

He felt dizzy in this apartment. These empty cans of beer piled up on the table is because he wasn’t a neat sort of person. It’s a good thing somewhat that he won’t have to wash the dishes since he didn’t cook at home. Jude sat on the creaking sofa, comforting himself in a small way. The old spring gave an irritating scream. The white bulb lit the house lifelessly. It was the light that made even the living look dead. As the light was weak enough, Jude put today’s newspaper, which he brought from the police station, on the table in front of the sofa with a slight frown.

After thinking about whether to turn on the TV or not, he soon threw his eyes back onto the newspaper.

-The ghost story of the Maples family.

It was an article in a third-rate newspaper. The shocking events of the Maples family, and the terrible, groundless scandals entangled in the family, were filling the surface of the newspaper. Besides, based on an article that the four-year-old child who survived and went into the orphanage said, “Yes, not my mom and dad, not my sister, not my uncles’ family, there was one more. He laughed a lot. He played with me nicely,” the reporter who wrote the article even brought up the ghost story of the Maples family. They were possessed by a ghost, and the people in that family have come and cursed each other. No wonder, they couldn’t find fingerprints other than relatives at the scene. On top of a photo of the strangely grim-looking family, Jude raised his hand.

As he tapped the article with his finger and moving his eyes along the printed lines, the phone rang dryly. After a moment’s flinch at the rude noise, Jude pulled out his wireless phone and returned to the sofa and sat down. Resisting the temptation to ignore it, a calm voice came out when he pushed the accept call button.

[- Detective?]

He expected it, but there was no reason to hold back a sigh.

“I said you didn’t have to. Well, since you’ve done it, so finish it quickly."

[Don’t be so hard on me, it should be interesting to you, too.]

“What is it?”

[The Maples family, you know?]

Jude’s hands, which were pointing on the newspaper, paused slightly. The fingertips moved slowly and stopped on a photograph of a young girl entering an orphanage. As he silently looked at the child with a sulky cheek, a thinly smiling voice rang in his ears.

[Curious? Or can you guess?]

“…… did you do it?”

[No way, I’m not interested in murder anymore.]

“I didn’t ask you, ‘did you kill them?'”

[Oh, it’s been a while since I had so much fun. I still laugh when I think about it.]

“Don’t change the subject, man. Whatever, what happened?”

[It was a simple start, again, because of the boring fortune.]

“I heard the distribution was over.”

[It wasn’t money, the old man had some real gem he bought with the money he had hidden his whole life. That’s why the whole family got together in one house, eight family members who didn’t have much interaction face-to-face, and didn’t get along very well with each other.]

“So, did they kill and die for that gem, that whole week? Something’s missing.”

[Ahahahah, of course, it’s not because of the ownership, they’re middle-class and have social status. There was a trigger. The reason why the sprouts of evil in them grew to fruition in a flash.]

Alvin seems like he thought it was really fun. Like a child reporting a joyous event that took place in school during the day, the voice was filled with some excitement. Jude lowered his eyes and waited for an answer.

Swoowoosh, Dulkook, Dulkuk. The sound of the crying wind shook the window. The gust of summer night, is it going to rain soon? The pale fluorescent light flashed over the picture of the frowning girl in the newspaper.

When the rain began to beat on the window, a voice with uncontrollable laughter flowed over the phone.

[It’s gone. The gem that everyone wanted, it disappeared from its original place. Gone.]

*        *        *