-CONTINUED FROM WEEK 7-
Chapter 2.
Following the strange text that Solomon sent to his twin, you drive out to the Blind King’s Bar at the edge of town. Pulling into the small bar’s parking lot, you wondered why anyone, much less the talented detective Solomon, would come all the way out here, especially after it had been abandoned for over a year. Weeds were growing through cracks in the concrete, the old red sign had faded into a rusty brown, and many of the broken windows had left shards scattered in the parking lot. It was only late afternoon, but the inside was too dark to be able to see far inside. You think that Solomon must have been pursuing a case himself, which lead him out here, but you didn’t remember seeing any open cases under his name. What could have been so intriguing as to bring him out here? Regardless, something sets your instincts on edge.
As you move closer to the building you start to see more of the bar inside: tables, chairs, old glasses, the like. But on the ground near the bar at the far end you also see four large lumps (two that seemed identical and one that was clearly bigger than the others). Suddenly, you recognize the four masses as the bodies of the four missing detectives, your friends.
Nerves on edge, anger rising, you rush to the door, but years of detective work remind you to look for signs of a trap before rushing into a dangerous situation. You sweep your eyes across the room, but you don’t see any signs of movement. You pull out your gun and move to the door. You slam your foot into the door, but the old wood gives way too easily, and you’re thrown off balance as you stumble through the doorway.
Before you could regain balance, your right foot trips some fishing twine across the threshold and a fine mist blasts your face. It tastes bitter on your tongue, and you try to rub it off your tongue and eyes, to no luck.
From a megaphone over your left shoulder, you here a voice cackle. No. Not a voice. The familiar, eerie voice of your worst nemesis, Enigma.
“I have you finally, Yu-did-ie” the scratchy voice screeched over the speaker. “Now we get to finish the gamie!”
“I thought you died in some shitty hole, Enigma” you cough out between rasps of air, the poison sinking deeper into your lungs. “What did you hit me with?”
“He-he-hie,” Enigma answered. “Only some fun little poison I made! You’ll be dead without my antidote, but you have to play my gamie! I warned your friends not to be too hasty, but they refused to playie. Wittle Archie even tried to shoot out my drinkies!”
You realize that you had been played. The poison became worse with every step and the antidote was labeled in a beer bottle locked behind a glass wall. The only way to get the code would be to play Enigma on his own terms. You only hope you can solve all the puzzles this time.
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Author’s Note: I did it! I continued the story from Week 7, but I also left it on another cliff hanger, because it was getting long again. In this part, I introduced the main antagonist in this story, Enigma, based off of Yama. Even though he hasn’t done much in the story yet, I am basing Enigma’s character off of the character of the Yin Yang killer from Psych (love that show), because both sets of villains/heroes interact with each other through series of riddles.
Mahabharata. Narayan. R.K. pp 85-131
