I wrote this for english assignment... tell me what 'yall think?
when you see a * it means: look at the end of page for meaning.
“Come on, I want you to see it” Thea said as he pulled Yumi up the staircase, her hand in his.
“Sei-kun will you calm down? Yumi asked, her free hand on her head, holding her head band in place.
“Wait for Joe and Jeni!”
“They’ll catch up.” Thea told her. Yumi frowned.
“Baka*” she muttered, but Thea heard her.
“Watashiwa baka desu ka*?” He asked her “is that right?”
Yumi smiled “sort of, work on your accent sei-kun”
“Oye! Love birds! Slow down!” Joe hollered up the stairs. His shouts turned into a yelp of pain. It was quiet for a moment. Then Joe’s voice was heard again
“I’m okay! Jeni just tripped me; is all!” Joe and Jeni appeared as they turned the corner; Joe’s hands were flying about angrily. Jeni rolled her eyes and grabbed Joe’s wrists and pushed them into his chest. She shook her head, pulling one of her hands back she signed,
“NO JOE” she brought her other hand back, “NOT MAKE ME PUSH DOWN-STAIRS YOU!” She threatened.
“OKAY, SORRY I” He signed half-hearted
“Oh, just stop fighting you two” Thea said as he signed, “STOP FIGHT ALL-YOU” Jeni sighed.
“Come on, let’s go” Thea said as he continued up the stairs, his hands in his pockets this time.
“There better be a good reason you dragged us way out here to this old decrepit building in the middle of the jungle!” Joe said.
“It’s not decrepit, and we’re in the woods, not the jungle.” Thea said as they reached a door.
“FINISH UP-STAIRS WE?” Jeni signed
“YES” Thea Signed as he pushed the door open, and the four of them were on the roof of the building. A group of people were in the middle of the roof. Most of them had a paper cup in their hand, wit steam rising from them. The faint aroma of coffee drifted towards them.
“Hi People!” Thea shouted.
“Sei-kun…nani*?” Yumi muttered into thea’s ear; in simple Japanese so Thea would understand.
“WHAT PEOPLE DO HERE THEY?” Jeni asked
“PEOPLE I WANT ALL-YOU MEET.” Thea signed as he said, “They’re the people I want you guys to meet.”
“Nande*?” Yumi asked
“Yumi? Please stop speaking Japanese, no one understands you!” Joe said slightly annoyed. Yumi responded by calling him a stupid little s**t in Japanese.
“Knock it off you two.” Thea said getting a little agitated.
“Well, if it isn’t Thea!” A man said, walking away from the group of people at the center of the roof. “You’ve sure gotten bigger! I remember when you were seven, you ran around your parents’ house, wearing nothing but a diaper, screaming like you were Tarzan” the man said.
Thea’s face turned blood red “Uncle Roy!” Thea yelled, after as Yumi and Joe laughed, Jeni asked,
“WHAT? WHAT FUNNY?” But no one saw, her eyes narrowed and she asked again. After five times with no response, she smacked Joe in the head.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT WOMAN?” Joe shouted, after receiving a look, he signed his question rather irritably.
“WHAT FUNNY?” Jeni repeated.
Joe sighed and explained.
“…and I was three.” Thea added. Joe told Jeni the change, but she didn’t see because she was laughing at Thea.
“No, you were seven” Roy concluded. “So, Thea tells me you guys’ are Cirque du Soleil fans, well these guys are doing there own version of Cirque du Soleil.
“That’s Freddie Crogan in the blue blouse, to her right, her brother James, then we have Jacques Cortez, Jacky Turner, Amanda, Brooke, and Jill Livingston, and Thomas Carver.” Roy said, going around the circle, starting with a pretty young lady in a light blue top and jeans. Her light brown hair was in a ponytail and it reached down her back stopping at her waist, and moving left, to a taller man. He was several years older and his eyes were set back, as though a shadow was hovering behind them. His hair was dirty blond; he was wearing all black, if Roy hadn’t said they were related, it would have been impossible to tell. Next was Jacques. He had a deep tan and black hair, his eyes were out of place on his face somehow, they seemed sad, while Jacques seemed happy. He was wearing a sleeveless white shirt and dark blue jeans. A silver dragon was tattooed on his left arm, twisting around his bicep and disappearing into his shirt. Continuing left, on Jacques right, was Jacky. Jacky’s hair fell to his shoulders. It was died orange. He wore a green jacket and black cargo pants. He had black sunglasses on his pale face and a chain with the kanji character: 天 hanging from it. Thea recognized it to mean Heaven in Japanese, but also, less commonly it meant sky or day in Chinese. Next were the Livingston girls. Amanda had her golden-brown hair tied into a bun, and was wearing a white silk blouse and a blue satin skirt that reached her knees. She appeared to be the oldest of the three. Brooke’s golden-brown hair was shoulder length and she too was wearing a white blouse, but had jeans on instead of a skirt. Jill’s hair was hanging down to her waist. She had a red T-shirt and tan shorts on; last was Thomas he had short black hair and a short beard. He looked like he was in his early twenties. He handed his coffee to Jill, and did what looked like was an attempt at a stunt, possibly one from the show, but fell and hit his elbow on hard the roofing. He was a clumsy person by the look of it. Thomas stood up and took his coffee back from Jill who was laughing slightly. The eight men and women seemed to notice the four newcomers. Thea, Yumi, Jeni, and Joe walked over to the big group.
“This is my nephew, Thea and his friends, Yumi…”
“Pleased to meat you” Yumi said, taking a slight bow, out of habit.
“Joe…”
“’tsup?” Joe said nodding his head at the group
“…and Jeni, she’s deaf so don’t take offence if she doesn’t respond to you”
“JENI, SAY HELLO” Joe signed
“Y-O” Jeni fingerspelled
“Jeni says ‘yo’” Thea said.
“Y-O” Freddie signed back, copying Jeni’s signs.
Jeni smiled “UNDERSTAND A-S-L YOU?” She asked
“SO-SO, LITTLE-BIT” Freddie signed. Jeni smiled again. “Why don’t I give you guy’s a tour?” Freddie offered, then she signed it the best she could, “WANT…T-O-U-R YOU?”
“Sure” they said. Freddie showed them the different rooms of the studio.
“…and this is the ballet room, this is where we practice the artistic routines, like dances and such.” Freddie said as they got off the fifth floor.
“This building is built so weird.” Yumi said as they moved down to the third floor “six stories tall one room per floor…and no elevator” she shook her head “how odd”
Freddie laughed “I guess it is a bit odd” This is the weight room.” She said opening the door. “Oh! Thomas, what are you doing here? I thought you were still on the roof!” Freddie said, clutching her heart.
“Sorry” Thomas said smiling, Jeni stiffened “I just came to get a little work out” He said.
“JOE? T-O-M LYING HE, DON’T-KNOW ABOUT WHAT I, BUT KNOW LYING HE!” Jeni signed at her brother
“Let’s continue the tour” Joe said pulling his friends out the door “Jeni says he was telling a lie.” Joe said after the door closed.
“But how could she know? She’s deaf.” Freddie said
“When people lie they have a physical reaction, Jeni is really good at seeming the truth in people’s expressions, as most deaf people are, you should know, as you too understand sign language, that the grammar is in the face. It’s nearly impossible to lie to my baby sister.” Joe said.
“SAY YOU LOOK SAME-AS ENGLISH WORD BABY, I NOT BABY!” Jeni signed.
“SORRY, MY TWIN SISTER.” He signed and said at the same time.
“He did seem a little surprised to see us there…” Thea said.
“Well, maybe he passed us when we were in the conference room on the sixth floor, the storage room and the fifth floor, or the ballet room on the forth.” Freddie subjected.
“I don’t know, Thomas is a strange person, why would he be using the weight room, after that fall, I mean it looked really painful!” Yumi exclaimed.
“Well, his wedding is next week, he wants to look good for it.” Freddie said.
“He’s getting married!” Joe, Thea, and Yumi said at the same time.
“T-O-M FUTRE MARRY HE” Joe told Jeni.
Jeni’s eyes brightened “MARRY WHO?” she asked.
“J-I-L-L.” Freddie fingerspelled.
“Who? Sorry, I don’t understand ASL” Yumi said
“Jill.” Thea said
“As in Jill Livingston?” Joe asked.
“Yeah, her” Freddie smiled, “They’re such an adorable couple.”
“What’s next?” Joe asked, trying to avoid talking about romance, he didn’t like that stuff, he felt romance was just a way speed up the coming of the inevitable pain that always follows.
“There’s the dining room and kitchen on the second floor.” Freddie said as the continued down the flight of stairs to another door. “We can’t go in now, the cook is preparing dinner, and he hates to be disturbed while he’s working.” She said “But the next floor down is the stage where we’ll be performing. I can show you that.” She said.
“AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGG!!” A blood curtailing scream echoed over the stairs.
“That sounded like Jacky!” Freddie said, sounding worried. She bolted up the stairs, someone came out of the a door, they couldn’t tell who it was, or what room they came out of, The four kids were running after them. Freddie was checking each room, the figure ran up and entered a door. Freddie followed him in. The figure ran out, his hand over his face and he ran past them. They ignored him and kept going, they heard Freddie scream. They barged into the room and a horrible sight met there eyes. Yumi screamed and fell to her knees shaking. She was pointing at something in the middle of the floor. It was a puddle of red liquid and bone arranged in the puddle.
“Yu-Yumi? W-what dose it m-m-mean?” Thea asked shaking.
“SHII NO OU!!” She cried, “The king of death!” she said in a strained voice. Her head hit the ground. She was unconscious.
“YUMI!” Thea screamed.
“YUMI!” Jeni signed when she saw her body, she ran over and held Yumi in her arms. “Go-ng O-k” She said. Her English was really bad because she couldn’t here herself talk.
“Some one call the police!” Thea said. “NOW!!” he said so loudly that the room seemed to shake. Every one but Thomas who ran out of the room, Roy, and Jacky both of whom nobody could seem to find, were all gathered around the blood on the ground. Freddie ran out of the room. Yumi stirred. “Do-do you here that sei-kun? That music.?” Yumi asked weakly. The room stood still lively music was playing.
“Yes.” Thea said suddenly hearing it.
“This song…its name…” Yumi said.
“Yumi now is not the time to be worrying about a song name…” Joe tried to say.
“Its name…is…LIFE!” she said. Every ones eyes widened.
“That’s sick.” Brooke said. “The murderer played this song! A song called life?”
“Guys, take out your badges.” He said, patting his chest. Slowly the four of them opened their jackets and reviled a badge. It was a badge that said they were official detectives; they all had the right to investigate a crime seen. Freddie ran into the room.
“The phone lines are dead!” She said. “And my cell phone has no signal out here!”
“DAMMIT!” Thea shouted. “Every one, go to the conference room, no one try to leave.” Thea warned.
“We couldn’t leave if we tried, when the phone in here wasn’t working, I tried the one in the parking lot, all the car tiers are slashed, and it’s miles to the nearest town!” Freddie said. “What are you kids up to?”
“There detectives…” Jill said with an air of disbelief.
“We’ll examine the room and search for evidence, meanwhile, Yumi and I will go look for the missing people.” Joe said, wanting to get Yumi away from the room.
Thea and Jeni looked around the room. Thea went to the door, and noticed something stuck at the top.
“It’s a wooden box…?” he said “With a button…” he made to press it when Jeni threw a cardboard box at his head,
“PUT-ON, RETARD” She said.
“SORRY” He signed back. He pulled on the rubber gloves and pressed the button. The music stopped. “O-D-D” he signed.
“WHAT?” Jeni asked.
“MUSIC END” he told her. He studied the box. “Poorly made” he muttered, pulling on the box. It came apart with ease, and the ‘button’ fell to the floor. “It’s a remote?” he said.
“What is?” Joe asked coming into the room, pulling on some rubber gloves, Yumi followed.
“You okay, Yumi?” Thea asked.
“Yeah, I fine now, thanks sei-kun” she said hugging him.
“What is” Joe repeated.
“Huh? Oh! This is; it’s a remote. It seams to control the audio in this room.” He said. “The murder set it up, so when the door opened all the way, the song would play.” Jeni shouted, the three ran over to see what was wrong.
“J-A-K” she fingerspelled. Her eyes were full of fear, and her face was a little green.
“Oh my God! Its Jacky’s skin!” Thea said.
“That’s why we couldn’t find him! Your uncle and the cook are in the conference room along with Thomas…” Joe said.
“This is crazy! Where are the insides? This is just a pelt!” Thea said angrily. “We’re dealing with a lunatic! For sure!”
The group moved to the conference room.
“The person killed was Jackson Turner. Age thirty-eight,” Thea said. “His skin was found rolled up in the corner of the room where his blood and a few of his bones were found. Where his inners are, we don’t know, but we’ll find out.” Thea told the people in the room “Until then, all of you are suspects!”
“Why? I’m innocent!” some one cried out.
“Because you all are here.” Yumi said. “That’s why.”
“We are going to look for more evidence.” Said Thea. “We’ll keep you posted on any thing we find out.” He sighed and looked around the room. “In two hours we’ll start the investigations.” Thea smiled slightly “I’m afraid there will be no calling for a lawyer, if you are innocent then you have nothing to hide. Right now we are in the middle of nowhere!” He brushed his hair out of his eyes “I make the rules now.
“Let’s go.” He said to the other three “we have work to do.”
“Was that smart, Thea? You could get killed by the murder!” Yumi said.
“I’m trying to draw the culprit out.” He said “I’ll be okay.” He said. He took Yumi’s hand in his “Don’t worry about me.” He said softly “I can’t bear to see you upset.”
They group wandered around the crime seen.
“Hey, you guys look at this! I remember seeing a bookcase like this one in all the rooms we visited.” Thea said pointing to a bookcase that was built into the wall. Look at the base of the book case! It looks like it was moved! And see these books? They’re less dusty then the other ones.” Thea said pulling out the books. Joe was explaining to Jeni what was happening. “There’s…a door knob…” Yumi said looking in through the gap. She reached through and turned it. The book case slowly drifted forwards. It reviled a door way. The book case was separate from the door, like the screen door of a trailer.
“Look, when you turn the handle far enough from this side, the book case separates…there is a hole to replace the books…and the door way leads to a hall way, it’s narrow, but it’s the perfect size for to people to walk side-by-side.” Yumi said. “Let’s go through.” As they moved along the hallway a stench filled it.
“It smells like blood!” Joe said. They reached another door.
“It-it looks like an e…” Thea began
“ELEVATOR” Jeni finished, she didn’t know she finished it of course. They opened the elevator door and the room was covered in blood. A bag was lying in the corner. It was red. They had a pretty good idea what was in it.
“The buttons don’t have blood on them, and there is a spot wiped away… whoever did this didn’t want to get blood on him, and I have a pretty good guess who the murderer is…Yumi, can you test the buttons for finger prints?” Thea asked
“Hai.*” Yumi said, getting out some stuff from her purse.
“JENI, WAIT WITH YUMI.” Thea instructed.
“Joe, come with me, we’re going to get finger print samples from the suspects, then we’ll use the elevator to search the floors and look for the murder weapon. I want to see how long it takes to go from floor to floor in this thing.”
“Roger!” Joe said, him and Thea ran out through the secret door and to the conference room.
“You can’t take our fingerprints!” Amanda protested when Thea and Joe told the adults.
“We’re licensed to take them” Joe said. Showing them his detective license again.
“It would be a good idea to cooperate.” Thea warned, giving them his menacing smile. After some time, they got the finger prints and returned to the elevator. “Did you finish Yumi?” Thea asked her as he reentered the elevator.
“Kuso*!” she yelled “Don’t do that!” Yumi glared at them. “Yeah I finished.”
“Good, here are the samples.” He said handing her the fingerprints, then pushing the fifth floor button.” The elevator shook and moved.
“Wait, are we going down?” Joe asked.
“I think so… feel like it, but I hit the fifth floor button…that was the floor above us!”
“This is weird.” Yumi said as the elevator came to an abrupt stop. The door opened and they moved to the secret bookcase doorway. Pushing it opened they found themselves in the weight room.
“What the heck?” Thea wondered a loud. “Oh, he looked at his watch. It took ten seconds at least.” Thea concluded. “That would explain why he was here…”
“You mean…you think, but what’s his motive?” Joe asked.
“Not a clue.” Thea said. “But if the evidence is correct, then we don’t need to know the motive.”
“I guess so…” Yumi said “Do you want me to look at his fingerprints first? Save us sometime?”
“Yes, that would be nice” Thea said “How many finger prints did you find.?”
“Um, three.” She said, inspecting the finger prints.
“Three? That’s odd.” Thea said.
“I suspect that some of the fingerprints were left by the original owner of this building, but I don’t know enough about the history of this building to… hey, these match!” she exclaimed. The other two don’t, I’ll have to compare them with the other people’s now.” She said, and to work. Joe had a signed conversation with Jeni and Thea watched. He was telling her how they suspected and all the stuff she missed.
“These other two have no matches. But one of these is a little bit odd, it could be the victim…” She said showing them the prints “it looks like whoever made these was struggling…” She stopped. “I just realized something… wait here!” She ran of and returned a few minutes later. “We have a death note.” She said. They returned to the elevator. “See?” she shined a black light on the wall. “It’s been splattered by blood, so its kindda hard to see.” When Jacky was murdered, he left his fingerprints behind, but rubbed them to spell out the letters ‘T’ then the letter ‘O’ and finally ‘M’” she said
“Tom!” Thea and Joe said at the same time. “Just like we thought”
“What button do we push?” Joe wondered aloud. “…to get to the Right floor?”
“If five took us to three, then one will take us to…” Yumi pushed the button. When the elevator stopped they moved to the hidden door. They pushed it open and barged into the conference room.
“We know who the murderer is!” Joe shouted. Six people looked very shocked. One looked angry.
“It’s you! You are the king of death!” Thea said pointing at Thomas.
“What? Don’t be ridicules! I didn’t kill anybody” he said.
“NO! Tom wouldn’t! He wouldn’t!” Jill screamed.
“I’m sorry, we have evidence. His fingerprints were found on the buttons of the hidden elevator, as was the blood and a sac we believe to be filled with the inners of the victim!” Thea shouted. “Also the prints we think are the victim’s were rubbed on the walls of the elevator to spell your name!” Thea said “When we met you in the weight room, you were trying to go up, but the buttons were messed up, we made a chart that tells us what each floor button really means. We peaked into the room from the book case, so we wouldn’t enter this one by accident.
“5=4, 1=3, 4=2 3=1 2=5 6=6” Thea said “There is no logic in the order, probably an electrical error. You tried to the storage room, then you would sneak back up to the roof, as if nothing happened, but when we met you, you got nervous.” You were in a hurry to get back, so you left a mess in the elevator!” Thea said “You couldn’t figure out which button lead to which floor!”
“Shut up!” Thomas screamed “I confess, you caught me! Two years ago he stole my wife! We used to live in Tokyo; we lived there for seven years, ever since we got married. We came back to America to visit some relatives, and she left me for that man. She got sick, some rare disease, he couldn’t pay for her medical bill. After she died he gave her body to science, but it was her greatest wish to be cremated and sprinkled over Mt. Fuji.” He said.
“Thea, he’s lying! Jeni says he’s lying again!” Joe shouted. A maniac look spread across Thomas’s face. He pulled a knife from his pocket and lunged at Thea. He drove the blade into Thea’s arm, inches from his heart. Thea tried to push the blade out, but the pain was too great, Thomas twisted the blade and Thea screamed. Yumi ran up and grabbed Thomas’s neck; he pulled the blade from Thea and fell to the floor panting. Thomas tried to stab Yumi, but Joe ran up and twisted Thomas’s arm, so the blade entered his stomach. Thea struggled to his feat.
“Don’t touch Yumi!” he bellowed. "I now will show you no mercy.” Thea said. Thomas was on the floor as blood poured from his stomach.
“That was so cheesy, Thea” Joe said panting.
“Some one call an ambulance.” Thea ordered. Clutching his wound. Yumi ran up to him and hugged him.
“How can I not worry?” she asked as she cried.
“T-the phones…” Freddie began.
“While we were in the basement, we plugged the main phone line back in.” Joe said.
When the ambulance arrived, Thea was taken into custody of the paramedics, but in the confusion, Thomas had vanished. In a dark room in the basement Thomas sat, his wound was gone.
“I’m coming for you.” He said darkly “detective group MM*!” he shouted.
Baka - Idiot
Watashiwa baka desu ka - I'm an idiot?
Sei-kun…nani - Thea...what?
Nande - Why?
Hai - Yes
Kuso - Damn
MM - 2000 (Roman Numerals)
(sei-kun, if you didn't realise is what Yumi calls Thea, it was my way of letting you guys know how to pronounce it)
when you see a * it means: look at the end of page for meaning.
Shii no ou
しい の おう
死の王
ダキングオフデツ
The King of Death
しい の おう
死の王
ダキングオフデツ
The King of Death
“Come on, I want you to see it” Thea said as he pulled Yumi up the staircase, her hand in his.
“Sei-kun will you calm down? Yumi asked, her free hand on her head, holding her head band in place.
“Wait for Joe and Jeni!”
“They’ll catch up.” Thea told her. Yumi frowned.
“Baka*” she muttered, but Thea heard her.
“Watashiwa baka desu ka*?” He asked her “is that right?”
Yumi smiled “sort of, work on your accent sei-kun”
“Oye! Love birds! Slow down!” Joe hollered up the stairs. His shouts turned into a yelp of pain. It was quiet for a moment. Then Joe’s voice was heard again
“I’m okay! Jeni just tripped me; is all!” Joe and Jeni appeared as they turned the corner; Joe’s hands were flying about angrily. Jeni rolled her eyes and grabbed Joe’s wrists and pushed them into his chest. She shook her head, pulling one of her hands back she signed,
“NO JOE” she brought her other hand back, “NOT MAKE ME PUSH DOWN-STAIRS YOU!” She threatened.
“OKAY, SORRY I” He signed half-hearted
“Oh, just stop fighting you two” Thea said as he signed, “STOP FIGHT ALL-YOU” Jeni sighed.
“Come on, let’s go” Thea said as he continued up the stairs, his hands in his pockets this time.
“There better be a good reason you dragged us way out here to this old decrepit building in the middle of the jungle!” Joe said.
“It’s not decrepit, and we’re in the woods, not the jungle.” Thea said as they reached a door.
“FINISH UP-STAIRS WE?” Jeni signed
“YES” Thea Signed as he pushed the door open, and the four of them were on the roof of the building. A group of people were in the middle of the roof. Most of them had a paper cup in their hand, wit steam rising from them. The faint aroma of coffee drifted towards them.
“Hi People!” Thea shouted.
“Sei-kun…nani*?” Yumi muttered into thea’s ear; in simple Japanese so Thea would understand.
“WHAT PEOPLE DO HERE THEY?” Jeni asked
“PEOPLE I WANT ALL-YOU MEET.” Thea signed as he said, “They’re the people I want you guys to meet.”
“Nande*?” Yumi asked
“Yumi? Please stop speaking Japanese, no one understands you!” Joe said slightly annoyed. Yumi responded by calling him a stupid little s**t in Japanese.
“Knock it off you two.” Thea said getting a little agitated.
“Well, if it isn’t Thea!” A man said, walking away from the group of people at the center of the roof. “You’ve sure gotten bigger! I remember when you were seven, you ran around your parents’ house, wearing nothing but a diaper, screaming like you were Tarzan” the man said.
Thea’s face turned blood red “Uncle Roy!” Thea yelled, after as Yumi and Joe laughed, Jeni asked,
“WHAT? WHAT FUNNY?” But no one saw, her eyes narrowed and she asked again. After five times with no response, she smacked Joe in the head.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT WOMAN?” Joe shouted, after receiving a look, he signed his question rather irritably.
“WHAT FUNNY?” Jeni repeated.
Joe sighed and explained.
“…and I was three.” Thea added. Joe told Jeni the change, but she didn’t see because she was laughing at Thea.
“No, you were seven” Roy concluded. “So, Thea tells me you guys’ are Cirque du Soleil fans, well these guys are doing there own version of Cirque du Soleil.
“That’s Freddie Crogan in the blue blouse, to her right, her brother James, then we have Jacques Cortez, Jacky Turner, Amanda, Brooke, and Jill Livingston, and Thomas Carver.” Roy said, going around the circle, starting with a pretty young lady in a light blue top and jeans. Her light brown hair was in a ponytail and it reached down her back stopping at her waist, and moving left, to a taller man. He was several years older and his eyes were set back, as though a shadow was hovering behind them. His hair was dirty blond; he was wearing all black, if Roy hadn’t said they were related, it would have been impossible to tell. Next was Jacques. He had a deep tan and black hair, his eyes were out of place on his face somehow, they seemed sad, while Jacques seemed happy. He was wearing a sleeveless white shirt and dark blue jeans. A silver dragon was tattooed on his left arm, twisting around his bicep and disappearing into his shirt. Continuing left, on Jacques right, was Jacky. Jacky’s hair fell to his shoulders. It was died orange. He wore a green jacket and black cargo pants. He had black sunglasses on his pale face and a chain with the kanji character: 天 hanging from it. Thea recognized it to mean Heaven in Japanese, but also, less commonly it meant sky or day in Chinese. Next were the Livingston girls. Amanda had her golden-brown hair tied into a bun, and was wearing a white silk blouse and a blue satin skirt that reached her knees. She appeared to be the oldest of the three. Brooke’s golden-brown hair was shoulder length and she too was wearing a white blouse, but had jeans on instead of a skirt. Jill’s hair was hanging down to her waist. She had a red T-shirt and tan shorts on; last was Thomas he had short black hair and a short beard. He looked like he was in his early twenties. He handed his coffee to Jill, and did what looked like was an attempt at a stunt, possibly one from the show, but fell and hit his elbow on hard the roofing. He was a clumsy person by the look of it. Thomas stood up and took his coffee back from Jill who was laughing slightly. The eight men and women seemed to notice the four newcomers. Thea, Yumi, Jeni, and Joe walked over to the big group.
“This is my nephew, Thea and his friends, Yumi…”
“Pleased to meat you” Yumi said, taking a slight bow, out of habit.
“Joe…”
“’tsup?” Joe said nodding his head at the group
“…and Jeni, she’s deaf so don’t take offence if she doesn’t respond to you”
“JENI, SAY HELLO” Joe signed
“Y-O” Jeni fingerspelled
“Jeni says ‘yo’” Thea said.
“Y-O” Freddie signed back, copying Jeni’s signs.
Jeni smiled “UNDERSTAND A-S-L YOU?” She asked
“SO-SO, LITTLE-BIT” Freddie signed. Jeni smiled again. “Why don’t I give you guy’s a tour?” Freddie offered, then she signed it the best she could, “WANT…T-O-U-R YOU?”
“Sure” they said. Freddie showed them the different rooms of the studio.
“…and this is the ballet room, this is where we practice the artistic routines, like dances and such.” Freddie said as they got off the fifth floor.
“This building is built so weird.” Yumi said as they moved down to the third floor “six stories tall one room per floor…and no elevator” she shook her head “how odd”
Freddie laughed “I guess it is a bit odd” This is the weight room.” She said opening the door. “Oh! Thomas, what are you doing here? I thought you were still on the roof!” Freddie said, clutching her heart.
“Sorry” Thomas said smiling, Jeni stiffened “I just came to get a little work out” He said.
“JOE? T-O-M LYING HE, DON’T-KNOW ABOUT WHAT I, BUT KNOW LYING HE!” Jeni signed at her brother
“Let’s continue the tour” Joe said pulling his friends out the door “Jeni says he was telling a lie.” Joe said after the door closed.
“But how could she know? She’s deaf.” Freddie said
“When people lie they have a physical reaction, Jeni is really good at seeming the truth in people’s expressions, as most deaf people are, you should know, as you too understand sign language, that the grammar is in the face. It’s nearly impossible to lie to my baby sister.” Joe said.
“SAY YOU LOOK SAME-AS ENGLISH WORD BABY, I NOT BABY!” Jeni signed.
“SORRY, MY TWIN SISTER.” He signed and said at the same time.
“He did seem a little surprised to see us there…” Thea said.
“Well, maybe he passed us when we were in the conference room on the sixth floor, the storage room and the fifth floor, or the ballet room on the forth.” Freddie subjected.
“I don’t know, Thomas is a strange person, why would he be using the weight room, after that fall, I mean it looked really painful!” Yumi exclaimed.
“Well, his wedding is next week, he wants to look good for it.” Freddie said.
“He’s getting married!” Joe, Thea, and Yumi said at the same time.
“T-O-M FUTRE MARRY HE” Joe told Jeni.
Jeni’s eyes brightened “MARRY WHO?” she asked.
“J-I-L-L.” Freddie fingerspelled.
“Who? Sorry, I don’t understand ASL” Yumi said
“Jill.” Thea said
“As in Jill Livingston?” Joe asked.
“Yeah, her” Freddie smiled, “They’re such an adorable couple.”
“What’s next?” Joe asked, trying to avoid talking about romance, he didn’t like that stuff, he felt romance was just a way speed up the coming of the inevitable pain that always follows.
“There’s the dining room and kitchen on the second floor.” Freddie said as the continued down the flight of stairs to another door. “We can’t go in now, the cook is preparing dinner, and he hates to be disturbed while he’s working.” She said “But the next floor down is the stage where we’ll be performing. I can show you that.” She said.
“AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGG!!” A blood curtailing scream echoed over the stairs.
“That sounded like Jacky!” Freddie said, sounding worried. She bolted up the stairs, someone came out of the a door, they couldn’t tell who it was, or what room they came out of, The four kids were running after them. Freddie was checking each room, the figure ran up and entered a door. Freddie followed him in. The figure ran out, his hand over his face and he ran past them. They ignored him and kept going, they heard Freddie scream. They barged into the room and a horrible sight met there eyes. Yumi screamed and fell to her knees shaking. She was pointing at something in the middle of the floor. It was a puddle of red liquid and bone arranged in the puddle.
“Yu-Yumi? W-what dose it m-m-mean?” Thea asked shaking.
“SHII NO OU!!” She cried, “The king of death!” she said in a strained voice. Her head hit the ground. She was unconscious.
“YUMI!” Thea screamed.
“YUMI!” Jeni signed when she saw her body, she ran over and held Yumi in her arms. “Go-ng O-k” She said. Her English was really bad because she couldn’t here herself talk.
“Some one call the police!” Thea said. “NOW!!” he said so loudly that the room seemed to shake. Every one but Thomas who ran out of the room, Roy, and Jacky both of whom nobody could seem to find, were all gathered around the blood on the ground. Freddie ran out of the room. Yumi stirred. “Do-do you here that sei-kun? That music.?” Yumi asked weakly. The room stood still lively music was playing.
“Yes.” Thea said suddenly hearing it.
“This song…its name…” Yumi said.
“Yumi now is not the time to be worrying about a song name…” Joe tried to say.
“Its name…is…LIFE!” she said. Every ones eyes widened.
“That’s sick.” Brooke said. “The murderer played this song! A song called life?”
“Guys, take out your badges.” He said, patting his chest. Slowly the four of them opened their jackets and reviled a badge. It was a badge that said they were official detectives; they all had the right to investigate a crime seen. Freddie ran into the room.
“The phone lines are dead!” She said. “And my cell phone has no signal out here!”
“DAMMIT!” Thea shouted. “Every one, go to the conference room, no one try to leave.” Thea warned.
“We couldn’t leave if we tried, when the phone in here wasn’t working, I tried the one in the parking lot, all the car tiers are slashed, and it’s miles to the nearest town!” Freddie said. “What are you kids up to?”
“There detectives…” Jill said with an air of disbelief.
“We’ll examine the room and search for evidence, meanwhile, Yumi and I will go look for the missing people.” Joe said, wanting to get Yumi away from the room.
Thea and Jeni looked around the room. Thea went to the door, and noticed something stuck at the top.
“It’s a wooden box…?” he said “With a button…” he made to press it when Jeni threw a cardboard box at his head,
“PUT-ON, RETARD” She said.
“SORRY” He signed back. He pulled on the rubber gloves and pressed the button. The music stopped. “O-D-D” he signed.
“WHAT?” Jeni asked.
“MUSIC END” he told her. He studied the box. “Poorly made” he muttered, pulling on the box. It came apart with ease, and the ‘button’ fell to the floor. “It’s a remote?” he said.
“What is?” Joe asked coming into the room, pulling on some rubber gloves, Yumi followed.
“You okay, Yumi?” Thea asked.
“Yeah, I fine now, thanks sei-kun” she said hugging him.
“What is” Joe repeated.
“Huh? Oh! This is; it’s a remote. It seams to control the audio in this room.” He said. “The murder set it up, so when the door opened all the way, the song would play.” Jeni shouted, the three ran over to see what was wrong.
“J-A-K” she fingerspelled. Her eyes were full of fear, and her face was a little green.
“Oh my God! Its Jacky’s skin!” Thea said.
“That’s why we couldn’t find him! Your uncle and the cook are in the conference room along with Thomas…” Joe said.
“This is crazy! Where are the insides? This is just a pelt!” Thea said angrily. “We’re dealing with a lunatic! For sure!”
The group moved to the conference room.
“The person killed was Jackson Turner. Age thirty-eight,” Thea said. “His skin was found rolled up in the corner of the room where his blood and a few of his bones were found. Where his inners are, we don’t know, but we’ll find out.” Thea told the people in the room “Until then, all of you are suspects!”
“Why? I’m innocent!” some one cried out.
“Because you all are here.” Yumi said. “That’s why.”
“We are going to look for more evidence.” Said Thea. “We’ll keep you posted on any thing we find out.” He sighed and looked around the room. “In two hours we’ll start the investigations.” Thea smiled slightly “I’m afraid there will be no calling for a lawyer, if you are innocent then you have nothing to hide. Right now we are in the middle of nowhere!” He brushed his hair out of his eyes “I make the rules now.
“Let’s go.” He said to the other three “we have work to do.”
“Was that smart, Thea? You could get killed by the murder!” Yumi said.
“I’m trying to draw the culprit out.” He said “I’ll be okay.” He said. He took Yumi’s hand in his “Don’t worry about me.” He said softly “I can’t bear to see you upset.”
They group wandered around the crime seen.
“Hey, you guys look at this! I remember seeing a bookcase like this one in all the rooms we visited.” Thea said pointing to a bookcase that was built into the wall. Look at the base of the book case! It looks like it was moved! And see these books? They’re less dusty then the other ones.” Thea said pulling out the books. Joe was explaining to Jeni what was happening. “There’s…a door knob…” Yumi said looking in through the gap. She reached through and turned it. The book case slowly drifted forwards. It reviled a door way. The book case was separate from the door, like the screen door of a trailer.
“Look, when you turn the handle far enough from this side, the book case separates…there is a hole to replace the books…and the door way leads to a hall way, it’s narrow, but it’s the perfect size for to people to walk side-by-side.” Yumi said. “Let’s go through.” As they moved along the hallway a stench filled it.
“It smells like blood!” Joe said. They reached another door.
“It-it looks like an e…” Thea began
“ELEVATOR” Jeni finished, she didn’t know she finished it of course. They opened the elevator door and the room was covered in blood. A bag was lying in the corner. It was red. They had a pretty good idea what was in it.
“The buttons don’t have blood on them, and there is a spot wiped away… whoever did this didn’t want to get blood on him, and I have a pretty good guess who the murderer is…Yumi, can you test the buttons for finger prints?” Thea asked
“Hai.*” Yumi said, getting out some stuff from her purse.
“JENI, WAIT WITH YUMI.” Thea instructed.
“Joe, come with me, we’re going to get finger print samples from the suspects, then we’ll use the elevator to search the floors and look for the murder weapon. I want to see how long it takes to go from floor to floor in this thing.”
“Roger!” Joe said, him and Thea ran out through the secret door and to the conference room.
“You can’t take our fingerprints!” Amanda protested when Thea and Joe told the adults.
“We’re licensed to take them” Joe said. Showing them his detective license again.
“It would be a good idea to cooperate.” Thea warned, giving them his menacing smile. After some time, they got the finger prints and returned to the elevator. “Did you finish Yumi?” Thea asked her as he reentered the elevator.
“Kuso*!” she yelled “Don’t do that!” Yumi glared at them. “Yeah I finished.”
“Good, here are the samples.” He said handing her the fingerprints, then pushing the fifth floor button.” The elevator shook and moved.
“Wait, are we going down?” Joe asked.
“I think so… feel like it, but I hit the fifth floor button…that was the floor above us!”
“This is weird.” Yumi said as the elevator came to an abrupt stop. The door opened and they moved to the secret bookcase doorway. Pushing it opened they found themselves in the weight room.
“What the heck?” Thea wondered a loud. “Oh, he looked at his watch. It took ten seconds at least.” Thea concluded. “That would explain why he was here…”
“You mean…you think, but what’s his motive?” Joe asked.
“Not a clue.” Thea said. “But if the evidence is correct, then we don’t need to know the motive.”
“I guess so…” Yumi said “Do you want me to look at his fingerprints first? Save us sometime?”
“Yes, that would be nice” Thea said “How many finger prints did you find.?”
“Um, three.” She said, inspecting the finger prints.
“Three? That’s odd.” Thea said.
“I suspect that some of the fingerprints were left by the original owner of this building, but I don’t know enough about the history of this building to… hey, these match!” she exclaimed. The other two don’t, I’ll have to compare them with the other people’s now.” She said, and to work. Joe had a signed conversation with Jeni and Thea watched. He was telling her how they suspected and all the stuff she missed.
“These other two have no matches. But one of these is a little bit odd, it could be the victim…” She said showing them the prints “it looks like whoever made these was struggling…” She stopped. “I just realized something… wait here!” She ran of and returned a few minutes later. “We have a death note.” She said. They returned to the elevator. “See?” she shined a black light on the wall. “It’s been splattered by blood, so its kindda hard to see.” When Jacky was murdered, he left his fingerprints behind, but rubbed them to spell out the letters ‘T’ then the letter ‘O’ and finally ‘M’” she said
“Tom!” Thea and Joe said at the same time. “Just like we thought”
“What button do we push?” Joe wondered aloud. “…to get to the Right floor?”
“If five took us to three, then one will take us to…” Yumi pushed the button. When the elevator stopped they moved to the hidden door. They pushed it open and barged into the conference room.
“We know who the murderer is!” Joe shouted. Six people looked very shocked. One looked angry.
“It’s you! You are the king of death!” Thea said pointing at Thomas.
“What? Don’t be ridicules! I didn’t kill anybody” he said.
“NO! Tom wouldn’t! He wouldn’t!” Jill screamed.
“I’m sorry, we have evidence. His fingerprints were found on the buttons of the hidden elevator, as was the blood and a sac we believe to be filled with the inners of the victim!” Thea shouted. “Also the prints we think are the victim’s were rubbed on the walls of the elevator to spell your name!” Thea said “When we met you in the weight room, you were trying to go up, but the buttons were messed up, we made a chart that tells us what each floor button really means. We peaked into the room from the book case, so we wouldn’t enter this one by accident.
“5=4, 1=3, 4=2 3=1 2=5 6=6” Thea said “There is no logic in the order, probably an electrical error. You tried to the storage room, then you would sneak back up to the roof, as if nothing happened, but when we met you, you got nervous.” You were in a hurry to get back, so you left a mess in the elevator!” Thea said “You couldn’t figure out which button lead to which floor!”
“Shut up!” Thomas screamed “I confess, you caught me! Two years ago he stole my wife! We used to live in Tokyo; we lived there for seven years, ever since we got married. We came back to America to visit some relatives, and she left me for that man. She got sick, some rare disease, he couldn’t pay for her medical bill. After she died he gave her body to science, but it was her greatest wish to be cremated and sprinkled over Mt. Fuji.” He said.
“Thea, he’s lying! Jeni says he’s lying again!” Joe shouted. A maniac look spread across Thomas’s face. He pulled a knife from his pocket and lunged at Thea. He drove the blade into Thea’s arm, inches from his heart. Thea tried to push the blade out, but the pain was too great, Thomas twisted the blade and Thea screamed. Yumi ran up and grabbed Thomas’s neck; he pulled the blade from Thea and fell to the floor panting. Thomas tried to stab Yumi, but Joe ran up and twisted Thomas’s arm, so the blade entered his stomach. Thea struggled to his feat.
“Don’t touch Yumi!” he bellowed. "I now will show you no mercy.” Thea said. Thomas was on the floor as blood poured from his stomach.
“That was so cheesy, Thea” Joe said panting.
“Some one call an ambulance.” Thea ordered. Clutching his wound. Yumi ran up to him and hugged him.
“How can I not worry?” she asked as she cried.
“T-the phones…” Freddie began.
“While we were in the basement, we plugged the main phone line back in.” Joe said.
When the ambulance arrived, Thea was taken into custody of the paramedics, but in the confusion, Thomas had vanished. In a dark room in the basement Thomas sat, his wound was gone.
“I’m coming for you.” He said darkly “detective group MM*!” he shouted.
Baka - Idiot
Watashiwa baka desu ka - I'm an idiot?
Sei-kun…nani - Thea...what?
Nande - Why?
Hai - Yes
Kuso - Damn
MM - 2000 (Roman Numerals)
(sei-kun, if you didn't realise is what Yumi calls Thea, it was my way of letting you guys know how to pronounce it)
