Between Life and Lies(T.S.W.P): Chapter 1b: Death of A Fox
Ventris Area 3, Goodrich’s Residence. February 13, SY700 (SimsYear).
9.30a.m.
‘I’m serious here, Kate. She has been cooking and baking non stop since the college offered her scholarship instead of taking action on that scum.,’ Dr. Jonathan Goodrich explained, his tone sounded worried.
‘Relax Jon! That poor girl only need to do something to get her mind off that f&#ing incident. You should be happy that she didn’t lock herself up like what she did after seeing Scarlet’s body,’ Katherine Goodrich replied nonchalantly.
‘Did you realize that while we are talking on the phone now, she is baking enough muffins to feed the whole Ventris General Hospital? Later tonight, she will cook a king’s meal just like what she had done for the past seven days! And you telling me I should b happy? We all know how fragile she is!’ Jonathan replied trying to keep his voice down and his raising temper in check.
‘Dear Dr. Jonathan, you are freaking out aren’t you? Finally! My always ‘in control’ brother is freaking out. Her cooking, is it as nice as Scarlet?’ Katherine tested his patience again.
‘Yes, almost as good. Wait! Why are you asking me this, I called to ask your opinion on what I should do with her not standing here and let you mock me! Do you know I have to take those muffins to work everyday? The nurses were calling me ‘Dr.Muffins’ behind my back!’ once again Jonathan had to refrain himself from yelling at the phone, ‘she can be such a b&#h’ he thought to himself.
‘Alright, I’ll stop picking on you for now. If you really that concern about her ‘cooking and baking’ frenzy, why don’t you send her to Alena’s sister, Antonia? I heard she is practicing in your city. Plus, you know you can get a discount from her, she had such a big crush on you back on the O.S Academy days,’ Katherine suggested.
‘Fine, I’ll check around for her address, tell Aley, I miss her a lot. I have to go to work; I think Margaret is at the door now. Bye,’ Jonathan hang up the phone after he saw the familiar outline of a shapely female standing on the porch of his brownstone double storey bungalow.
Margaret James straightened her hemline and tried making sure none of her brown hair is out of place when she heard Jonathan walking towards the door. She wore little makeup, as she knew Jonathan preferred natural beauty instead of foundation covered faces.
‘Hi, Margaret good morning, please come in,’ Jonathan smiled and hugged her lightly causing butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
She followed him into the living room with light red flowery wallpaper and comfortable velvet brown seating with solid looking dark oak coffee, as usual a bunch of fresh white calla lilies stood proudly on the table.
‘What time will you be home?’ she asked her blue eyes shining brightly every time she catch a glimpse of the 38 years old doctor.
Jonathan put on his grey knit sleeveless sweater on top of his white shirt before turning around smiling, ‘I’ll try to come home early’ before walking in to the kitchen to say goodbye to Cherish who was obsessed with baking blueberry muffins at the moment.
Margaret just stood at the door watched him reversed his black sedan and disappeared from her vision before she finally breathe in, the smell of his breezy and fresh smelling perfume lingered in the old fashioned living room. Margaret always seemed to be under some spells whenever Jonathan flashed his warm assuring smile. She shook her head side to side to clear out her intoxicated mind before walking to the golden-brown tiled kitchen to check on the teenage girl she has been keeping her eyes on for the last ten days.
‘What are you baking today, sweetie?’ Margaret asked attempting to get the younger girl talking. Cherish has not muttered a word since the day the Dean of the college came to the house and offered her a rather substantial sum of money or in his word ‘scholarship’, in order for her to drop the case. But that was after a group of menacing looking men visited, dropped off bag full money and a note warning her not to open her mouth, it was signed with only a last name, Mason.Getting no respond as usual, Margaret sat on the bar stool of the counter and watched Cherish baking tray after tray of muffins and cook a meal big enough to feed a family of ten after she ran out of baking ingredients. All Margaret could do was feeling sorry and guilty for not being able to help even though her uncles are either politicians or police chiefs. ‘she should consider herself lucky, Marge’, ‘He didn’t rape her anyway, just ask her to snap out of it’, was the replies she got when she consulted her uncles about helping Cherish.
When Jonathan came back from work in the evening, a table full of delicious food awaited him. He smiled grimly at Margaret and Cherish and joined them with a silent prayer that his best friend’s daughter will talk to him instead of wearing herself out by cooking and baking.Ventris Area 2, Pure Peaceful Forest Reserve. February 16, SY700 (SimsYear).
7.30 a.m.
32 years old, Kaylyn Langerak cursed under her breath as she walked towards the heart of the vast forest named Pure Peaceful Forest Reserve. Once again her co-workers had leave her with the most creepy place to clean and look after, she hated that place since her first day working as one of the caretaker of the so called ‘forest reserve’. For her the place was more like a place for teenage romps as she once said to her co-worker Goopy,
‘if I get one dollar for each condom I pick up everyday, I can live in Area 1 instead of the lowly Area 7!’She reluctantly starts her job cleaning the condoms and empty beer cans in the area. She heaved a sigh of relieved when she finally finished cleaning up the popular ‘fun place’ and proceed to clean the last spot of her cleaning area, right in the centre of the forest, under the big oak tree. There was nothing much for her to clean usually but when she reached there she noticed dark red patches are all over the ground, the wind blew in her direction a sickening smell insulted her nostrils. Something sticky dripped onto her head, she looked up and screamed her lungs out before collapsing.
Same Place. February 16, SY700 (SimsYear).8.30 a.m.
Chief Police Officer, Hugo James shook his balding head when he saw the sight of the naked man tied around the abdomen and strung high on the branch of the oak tree. His attention shifted to the man’s genital, which severed badly and wondered whom on Sims earth will dare to do such a thing to the son-in-law of the mayor?
He took out his cell phone and called his niece Margaret James who was in Jonathan’s house.
‘Marge, I have a bad news. Douglas Wilson is dead. We found him hung up in an oak tree by the waist, his genital severed and both of his hands severed up to the wrist. He bleed to death,’ Hugo informed her niece in a hush tone.
‘What! Who will ever dare to even touch that bastard?’ Margaret asked, her voice booming, attracting Cherish to where she stood.
‘Apparently, he was abducted three days ago. The kidnappers asked for 1 million dollar. Greta Mason delivered it yesterday, the kidnappers never contact her after getting the money,’ he replied.
‘You mean somebody kidnapped Douglas Wilson, get the money and killed him by cutting of his dirty hands and his dick?’ Margaret said loudly without minding her language and failed to realise that Cherish was beside her, listening to every word.
Ventris Central Police Station, March 16, SY700 (SimsYear).2.30 p.m.
Hugo James rubbed his head with confusion as he listened to the report from his inspector, Robert James who is also his nephew.
‘The marked money Greta Mason paid the kidnappers was found in the mail box of several orphanages in the city on 17 February. Members of the Mason family confirmed that the money found in the orphanage’s mailbox was the same batch of marked money they gave to the kidnappers. According to the coroner’s report, the victim was whipped several times prior to death and there are several cigarettes burn marks on his lower body. The cause of death is excessive loss of blood mainly from severed hands up to the wrists. Our station’s criminologist concluded the attack as symbolic yet revengeful. Severing both the hand and the genital area seem to be a sign of humiliation and contempt to the victim. Our conclusion is the case is not about money but its aim is killing the victim. Unfortunately, we are unable to find even the smallest clues to the crime and due to lack of evidences we are forced to partially close the case,’ the lanky red head inspector concluded.
PS: The original story Douglas Wilson was stabbed to death not castrated and cut off both hand. I adjusted it because of the fact that i no longer have to write the story according to the limitation of ingame action. To Ken: I don’t care whether anyone read my story or not, I just like to write!
One minute I’m reading about blueberry muffins, the next there’s a dead guy in a tree dripping blood…Ewwww lol Sickening, but I’m glad the bastard’s dead! Now, who are these Masons I wonder..hmmm
Since you are not bound by in-game play as you say, do you still play to be inspired to write or have you discarded the game and created a story all your own?
Karen: The draft of the story(general idea) existed before i actually create and write the story with ingame pictures, the personality of the characters only surfaced when i created them when i observed how they behave in the game.For example Douglas Wilson was not part of the story at first but because he kept hitting on Cherish in her dorm when i still have Forestdale, he was included in the story. By the way, before i lost the neighborhood i actually played until the twins get married. So, the updates so far are based on the draft i wrote inspired by the game.
The Masons are the most powerful family in Ventris, Greta Mason was Douglas Wilson’s wife. They are a bunch of corrupt bullies but apparently not that great since the only son-in-law was killed in such a horrible way. I can assure you Douglas’s death has nothing to do with these Masons.
Comment by Ann — March 12, 2008 @ 8:40 pm