''The Bird of Hermes is my name
Eating my wings to make me tame''
-Ripley Scroll
Chapter 1
Detective: All right. Let's start again. What happened?
Boy: I' ve already told the other guy everything, please let me see Lizza!
Detective: You are going to see her, but first, tell me everything!
Boy: I've already told the other guy everything. Why don't you understand?
Detective: I know that you already told him, and he doesn't believe you, I am interested in your story so If you will tell me I promise I will let you see that girl Lizza.
Boy: Ok, Ok...We passed out the border and entered on the highway.
Detective: Border to Bulgaria?
Boy: Yeah.
Detective: Ok, go on!
Boy: So, we were on the highway and I believe there were around 3-4 hours of driving to arrive at our hotel. It was midnight so probably we should've got there by 4 in the morning.
Detective: The hotel?
Boy: Yes, the hotel where we should have our graduation banquet.
Detective: Ok, go on!
Boy: After one hour on the highway, some teachers saw that our driver is very tired and he is not focused at all on the road so we decided to find some place where to stay. We start to call around every hotel but there were not enough rooms available because we were around 36 people. After 15 minutes, Marra, a girl from another class yelled at us to shut up because he was talking with someone that could've let us stay overnight.
''Yes, yes, no problem'' said her excited while she was speaking with that person.
Detective: So there was a free hotel after all.
Boy: Hey, you said you wanted to hear what I have to say! Let me finish!
After she ended the call she went to the driver and start to explain to him where to go. He left the highway on the third exit, then after 20 minutes, he made a right on a country road that he drove for almost an hour.
He could have pulled somewhere on the right and slept that hour and 15 minutes that took us to get there. Never mind. So we thru a tiny forest and arrived in front of a mansion. A mansion, not like the ones you know, it was like a Japanese mansion. You know, those houses with long hallways, small rooms, and a big garden right in the middle. Something like that. The strange thing was that there were no fences or walls around the building. From what I've known every country house has a fence at least.
Detective: Did you saw any sign or street number or something like that?
Boy: No, I was very tired and I didn't pay attention, I was so tired and the only thing I wanted was to lay in a bed and get some hours of sleep. The driver stopped beside the main door and we got down from the bus. There were no one there just the note on a wooden table on which it was written ''I'm sorry, I've had some business to do, please enter and choose your rooms I'll be back by morning’’.
Detective: It did not seem strange to you that a stranger would let you in his house while he was away?
Boy: Yes, It was strange, but more strange was the fact that the door was open. No locks and no keys under the carpet. But it was late and we all were tired and stressed out so we didn't pay so much attention. I believe because It was an isolated place and only the locals know about him so we didn't care too much. I and Adrian, one of my colleagues stayed out to smoke while the others rushed inside to choose a room and to go to sleep. We spent like 20 minutes outside and when we entered inside everybody already choose their room. But man, that house, wow. It was so clean and had old furniture, old but very well, kept. Some great paintings, I am not so passionate about art and other things that are associated with it but those paintings were also wow. Also on every part of the house were little messages written on wooden planks.
Detective: Hey, I understand that you want to show me your description talent but get to the point.
Boy: Ok, sorry! Fortunately, Adrian's girlfriend saved us one room, it was more like a storage closet but who cared at that time. Adrian and his girlfriend lay in bed and I put myself in a bedchamber.
Detective: Get to the point!
Boy: Ok, ok! So we went to sleep and Adrian and his girlfriend started to have sex so I went out to smoke because I didn't feel right and I couldn't sleep while his girlfriend was moaning. I picked up my jacket and went outside. The driver was sleeping, outside was very quiet but I forgot my lighter in the room. I didn't want to get inside and to get outside again because the floor was made from wood and when I was stepping on it, it made some noises. So I decided to stay outside a couple of minutes to let them finish their work.
Detective: Hey, all right, I know you are trying to buy time for your lawyer but I am not eating that crap.
Boy: Man I'm not trying anything!
Detective: Shut up, just shut and tell me what the fuck happened there or I swear I'm gonna beat you right now and I'm going to put that pen, near your hand right in your throat.
Boy: Why don't I put it myself?!
Detective: Wha...
A few moments later the detective gets out of the interrogation room covered in blood right when his apprentice Willy comes with coffee.
Willy: Vlad, what happened? Sayed Willy to the detective
Vlad: Go and see with your eyes and call the ambulance? answers Vlad
Willy: Where are you going?
Detective: I'm going home to take a shower and Willy please go and take the recording with the other witnesses and bring to my home around midnight.
Willy: But...
Vlad: Midnight Willy, midnight! said again to him while he lit a cigar and walked to the parking lot.
In Vlad’s mind, from the talk he had with Willy until he got to the car, all the time he stood outside to finish his cigar because he knew his wife did not like when people smoke in her car, all the time he drove home even though he did not go straight to his home but drove a little through the neighborhood because he thought that would help him think... all the time he was thinking about the thing that would make a boy of 23 commit suicide. But here were no logical answer. He parked in front of his house and entered inside. A few hours later Willy arrives with some food coffee and all the recording from the interrogation that took part earlier that day.
While they ate they watched the tapes. And they watched and watched and watched...
Willy: How many times are we gonna watch those? It’s already 5 in the morning ...
Vlad: We need answers!
Willy: What answers...We have 30 people going on a trip, from 30, 23 are missing, the other 7 are in police custody, no one of them wants to tell what happened, they are asking to see this girl Luiza who wasn't even on the bus, not even in their classroom or college, the house they are talking about a house that doesn't exist..I don't understand...
Before Willy finish to speak his phone rang. He put it out of his pocket and answers
Willy: Hello, yes, he's with me, yes, yes...
What's with your face? asked Vlad
Willy: He died...
Vlad: Who, another kid?
Willy: No, Jeremiah, the agent who speak with the dead boy before you.
Vlad: He knew!
Willy: What?
Vlad: That's what that boy was telling me '' I've told everything to the other guy''
Willy: Jeremiah...
Vlad: Yes.
Willy: So he knew what happened.
Vlad: Wait for a second...Look at your notes Willy...
Willy: What's with them.
Vlad: Just pay attention to the numbers!
Willy: They are the same ...
Vlad: Yes, the same. All right, give your pen and your notebook.
Willy: What are you doing?
Vlad: So we have seven boys with seven stories. In each story, they say the time, the same time. In each story the time when the girl spoke on the phone is the same with the others, the amount of time they took to get there is the same. The number of people they’ve should have slept in the room with was the same. Also, all seven were out at the same time and they stopped talking with the interrogators at the same point in the story and they all ended with ‘’Then it started’’.
Willy: What that means?
Vlad: They know what happened and they are hiding it. Or everything is a prank, or they are the masterminds of all this. One of them killed himself, so for sure this is not a prank. An agent also killed himself. Maybe he killed himself because the author of all this contacted him and threaten his family but Jeremiah had no wife or children, in fact, he was an orphan. Even if they are the masterminds of all this how can seven boys to hide 23 bodies and a bus... And more strange is that from what I heard from Marcus...
Willy: Marcus, the inspector
Vlad: Yes, that Marcus. He said that the boys came to tell the police that their friends, colleagues, and teachers are gone, and again this thing... So why they came to tell the police everything but they stopped when the real thing started? Something is missing... Fuck... Always something is missing. Even the mansion is missing.
Willy: I am going to sleep because I am really tired and tomorrow we are going to start over. You should sleep too!
Vlad: Yeah, Yeah... See you tomorrow!