Stories from Spring Valley

[Fisherson]

Firstly love that UFO sighting being The Jewel XD Makes,me wonder if the crew were lost or what. Then again could be the same model but different people. I mean cause it's not Charas Inc. pulling a publicity stunt to promote Juno's Iliad: the Search for More Money...Those guys are too cheap for that.

The monacle thing made me really go "Dang shoulda made that Red or Booya's ultimate equip! D'oh!" #The shout out to the marshmallow however was pure subterfuge! Did like how you used the War to tie in why everything is so urban industrial. Very clever that.

Leo's cameo in Streets, lol excellent pun, was just scary and awesome. It's funny how he can do that eh? Be cool no matter if he's evil or anti-heroic?

Everything in that last collection is beautiful. Lol LuvIxion is the best screen name ever.

[Prpl_Mage]

The Hoodlum

-”Seriously Hal, take a look.” Officer Flynnt pleaded to the detective as said detective was looking through the office fridge in the break room.
-”Right now I’m focusing on this food thing, so I’ll get back to you in like, later.” Henry replied without removing his head from inside the fridge.
-”What if I said it’s from Dillinger?” Flynnt tried.
-”Who’s that again?”
-”Hal, seriously? The detective from Greyspire.” Henry could sense that Flynnt was close to giving up, which sounded pretty good. However, this last piece of information was something he didn’t want to miss up on.
-”Fine, you win. Let’s see the report.” Henry closed the door with some bakery tugged under one arm, heading for the single over-used microwave oven in the break room.
Flynnt was like a worn out recording, but proved useful with his diligence.
-”She sent you this, apparently she has a lead on that Hoodlum person.” He had a fax in his hand and some sort of case file with him.
-”Flynnt! Now you ruined this for me.” Henry complained.
-”What are you talking about?”
-”Read the rest for me if you’re already in the mood to spoil the contents.”
-”You know what? Just this once.” He always said that.
-”Lay it on me.” Henry leaned back against the counter with his first batch of bakery warmed up, unfortunately he forgot to remove the plastic bag surrounding it before heating.
-”Greyspire’s Police force is occupied with solving the kidnapping of Stahlmann’s son. So they aren’t interested in looking into other matters.” Flynnt started but wrinkled his nose as Henry started eating his heated food despise the melted plastic stuck to it.
-”I’m only hearing things I already know Flynnt, what did Dillinger contact me for?”
-”She had a theory that the suspect, the Hoodlum is behind the kidnapping of Stahlmann’s son and some of the other missing teenagers from Greyspire-”
-”Hey, what are you guys doing?”
-”Oh hey Izzie. You want some?” Henry called to his other colleague who popped her head into the break room.
-”Ain’t those for Dan since his cat died of cancer?” She inquired.
-”Nope…”
-”Hal!”
-”What?”
-”Focus on the case please. I’m trying to help you.”
-”What’s the case? Mm, this is yummy.”
-”It’s about all those disappearing kids.”
-”No, it’s about the Hoodlum. Just pay attention Hal!”
-”You said they were connected!”
-”No, I said that was Dillinger’s theory, or rather hypothesis.”
-”Ooh, Dillinger again eh Hal? Watcha two got going?”
-”Elizabeth please, not now.”
-”Sorry, Flynnt, go on.”
-”Where was I? Right, she looked into some leads and they lead here to Spring Valley. However, Captain Berger didn’t want to follow up on it. Chasing weird tales from crazy people when the city’s future depends on the finding of Stahlmann’s son is a bit too desperate.”
-”Sorry, crazy people?” Izzie asked while adding some bakery of her own to the microwave.
-”Wild guess, the loony bin right?” Henry directed at Flynnt who nodded in confirmation.
-”Seems she found some interesting stories about the Hoodlum in the asylum. Which brings us here, she wants you to present this to our captain so our precinct can open an investigation. God knows why, but she seems to be under the impression that you are the best and brightest.” Flynnt finished and handed over the case file to Henry with all the specifics.
-”That’s so sweet! If Hal is the best and brightest then Spring Valley is doomed, but at least he’ll keep Dillinger safe.” Izzie joked and gave Henry a playful shove.
-”Sorry, how many cases have you cleared this week Izzie?” Henry replied sourly while shifting through the papers.
-”Ouch, low blow there Hal.”
-”Doesn’t matter, we can’t run this by the captain.”
-”So I spent all this time for nothing? What is it now? Wrong font on the file?”
-”This is prosecutor Owen’s address.” At that, a silence spread across the break room, until the microwave oven popped.

-”That’s out of the question Hal!” Flynnt yelled at Henry, sitting in the patrol car on the street outside the residence of the Owens.
-”I kinda agree with Flynnt here. I reckon doing this gonna wreck our careers if your flirt is wrong about this whole business.” Izzie added from the backseat.
-”Hell it might even if she’s right.”
-”But guys, we have pictures! This is the house, here is the Hoodlum caught on photo entering. More photos and testimonies about this exact same person, the clothes and everything.” Henry argued, which in itself was pointless because he already had his mind set on doing this regardless.
-”But we need to contact the captain about it, we can’t just storm the house, sorry, mansion of one of the top prosecutors of Summath Island!” Izzie complained while pointing at the very impressive building on the other side of the street.
Spring Valley had started of as a typical rural town and only recently seen urbanization. But estates like these existed some way outside the town proper closer to the forest.
-”We need some proof or catching him in action, if he is notified he can prepare beforehand. We lose all evidence. No one is home, it’s dark in every window, this is our chance. Just look at this, there are plenty of places to hold prisoners or do crazy serial killer stuff!”
-”This is a mistake Hal, we don’t even know if Owen really is this Hoodlum person.”
-”Oh wait guys, I couldn’t hear you over the sound of unmistakable crime happening inside the premises of prosecutor Owen’s house. What a crazy random happenstance!” Henry was fed up with the naysayers and got out of the car reaching for his pack of cigarettes.
-”Please don’t do this Hal.” The other two got out of the car as well.
-”You don’t get it, just think of all the kids disappearing lately. They can’t all have gotten lost in the Shifting Alley. We need to investigate this. And I’m doing it, no more sitting around wasting time finding errors in my logic.” He crossed the street to the wall surrounding the house.
-”I’m coming with you Hal.” Izzie said and followed, a determined look upon her face.
-”You guys are getting yourselves into trouble, I’m taking the car back to precinct.” Flynnt said but stopped at the hood.
-”I’m doing this for you, if he sees the car he might get suspicious. Don’t go in there with your badges flying, he knows he has the law on his side.” He added then shook his head and took the driver’s seat.
-”The cab is on you.” Henry said as they watched Flynnt drive away.

-”What’s up with rich people and having ugly trash  presented as art?” Henry asked as the pair sneaked around in the dark.
The inside of the house was spacious, you could fill the entire office of the police station in this weird living room or ballroom or whatever it was supposed to be.
-”I actually think that’s just an apple on a book, you know, things you put on a counter?” Izzie aimed her flashlight his way.
-”If I were a crazy kidnapper then where would I keep my victims?” Henry mumbled.
-”Same place where you keep everything else? Seriously Hal, I’m not finding anything suspicious in this room either. Everything is clean and stylish, he even has a CD collection and his own personal computer here!” Hal thought Izzie looked ready to give up.
-”Wait, what about this photograph?” Hal asked as he got close to the obligatory upper class trophy wall.
As always, it was lined with trophies from different sports and school, also photographs of teams and famous people and lastly diplomas and certificate of prosecution, or whatever that is called. It’s a fancy paper framed in an expensive frame at least.
-”Damn, that might just be something. This picture is from before the Shifting Alley got all weird like?”
-”Looks like it, before that madman tried take over the world with his evil plan.”
-”I recognize some of these people, but they are much younger than I’m used to. What about those?”
-”I know some of them, I’ll fill you in later but it’s a long story.” Henry took some notes before moving on.
-”Hey, you missed this box of leather whips Hal.” Izzie called from the closet.
-”Nah, that’s normal. Leave it.” At that exact point, he bumped into the wall beside the doorpost and heard a clicking sound.
As an expert investigator he knocked at the wall and listened to the hollowness and lack thereof.
-”Got something else here.” He said and started feeling around for something unusual.
-”Whatcha got?” Izzie asked confused as she saw her colleague feeling and pressing himself against the doorpost.
-”There got to be something inside this wall, I swear there was some mechanism inside it.”
-”What about this switch?” She flipped the obvious switch and a humming noise of a mechanism rumbled through the floor as the wall slid open.
Henry peered around into the revealed darkness and shone his flashlight into it, there was a staircase leading down into the abyss below.
-”Damn, I guess we’re about to find where all those kids have been kept.”
-”Are you sure about this Hal? There is a phone here, this is enough to warrant a search right?” Izzie looked nervous and held her gun in hand before the looming darkness.
-”We need something more, this is all circumstantial, we need some definite proof.” He replied with a sigh, gathering his own courage.
-”I got your back.”
-”Then let’s see what we find down there.”

-”Damn it’s cold down here.”
The two officers moved slowly through what appeared to be an old wine cellar, embedded into the crust of the earth. The only light shining their uncertain path forward was that of their flashlights, held close to their raised firearms for whatever threat might appear.
-”Is that a voice? I thought no one was home.”
-”No one was home, you saw how dark the place was, we searched half the house without encountering anyone.”
-”Then who is talking and to whom?”
-”There’s only one way to find out.”
The pair moved towards the end of a corridor, the chill from the walls were palpable but they could see light seeping out from a large oaken door at the end.
Henry took the lead and moved slowly towards the door, hearing the voices more clearly and gently shoving it to get more, although it was still hard to hear.
-”The master is not please -.”
-”But - done every - you’ve asked.”
-”Power - price - souls.”
-”Dark - to light - awesome.”
-”Glimm - Faz- Spire.”
-”Can’t hear **** Hal.” Izzie mumbled behind him, it was true. It was all gibberish mostly. But a keen deduction, the kind you earn from being a detective for a long time, concluded that the two people inside were up to no good. And some sort of fanaticism was involved.
-”Sacrifice - now”
-”That’s sounds bad, what’s happening in there?”
-”Could be our guy, let’s not wait around.” Henry replied while steadying his hand, preparing for what would come next.
He put his hand on the door, looking back at izzie who gave the sign that she was ready, then he took a deep breath and pushed the door open with the kind of creaking that only came from old age.
The light from the room flooded out as Henry and Izzie entered it with weapons drawn aimed towards two figures standing in the middle. The two figures turned around, clearly astonished at the events, one of the holding a dagger and both dressed in some sort of hooded attire.
-”Freeze right there!” Henry exclaimed with his gun aimed at the person with the dagger, at that moment he noticed that there was a third person nearby, tied to some sort of altar in the room.
-”James Owen, you have the right to remain silent, but put the gun down right now!”
-”It seems you have me at a disadvantage, officer..?” Henry noticed that Owen seemed to have collected himself from the initial surprise.
-”None of your damn business, but it seems my hunch was right.”
-”Then what now?” Owen moved to cover the person behind him.
-”Drop the weapon Owen, not gonna tell you again.” Henry threatened and cocked his gun dramatically.
-”What the **** is this place? You dirtbags are sick.” Izzie added, with her own gun aimed at the other person, an older man clad in something more robelike.
-”Nothing is happening here, just private business of course. This is my home after all.” Owen said coldly, although it would be expected to be sarcastic in some way. He dropped the dagger at the floor.
-”Step away from that boy!” Henry commanded again, moving closer, steadily.
Owen relented and gave some space, the person tied up was a teenage boy. Not one that Henry recognized but he would bet it was the missing Stahlmann’s son. At least he hoped so.
-”So I guess you were the Hoodlum after all. I can’t understand why someone like you would do this.” Henry said while moving towards the boy with the gun aimed at the two men.
-”I have no idea what sort of ransom you are trying to extort from Stahlmann with this kidnapping but that ship has sailed.”
-”Ransom? Oh, right. That would make sense.” Owen said calmly.
-”What? You didn’t kidnap him for ransom?” Izzie asked, getting a bit jumpy as they came closer to the suspects.
-”I guess you know far less than I expected. But that only works in my favour. Kidnapping is only a minor part of a much larger scheme.” Owen said, relaxing his shoulders.
-”Like I give a ****, you are coming back to the station with me, we’ll sort out what this mess is about there.” Henry said while pulling a short knife to cut the ropes holding the boy.
-”That’s going to be an issue, I’m afraid.” Owen said plainly and pulled another dagger from behind his back and rushed the occupied detective.
Two gunshots echoed through the chamber.
The smoke from Izzie’s barrel cleared and Owen fell to the floor a feet from where Henry was freeing the boy.
Izzie was panting, the gun aimed at the body of the prosecutor, too late did she remember the other suspect and turned back only to see another dagger thrown at her from the other man.
The dagger struck her in the shoulder and she dropped her gun.
-”A life for a life, only fair yes?” The robed man said, his face hidden from view but a beard was visible in the hood.
-”Keep your hands where I can see them!” Henry shouted, leaving the boy to step between Izzie and the man. The robed man obeyed and held up both hands.
-”You took a most useful man from me, the lord will not be pleased with this. But it matters not, all life will return on the day of reckoning.
-”Are you okay Izzie?” Henry asked without looking back.
-”**** hurts like hell but I’m not gonna die like this.” She called back, she was slumped on the floor.
-”Turn around and get down on your knees!”
-”No.”
-”I’m not asking.”
-”No.”
-”I will shoot if you continue to resist.”
-”Yes, but how many bullets do you have detective?”
As if that had been a signal all along the door behind them opened and some thirty figures in hoodies entered the chamber, and at the far end of the room another door opened and did the same.
They all looked pale, their eyes empty and their outfits the same. Henry realized that The Hoodlum was not a single person. The Hoodlum was an entire pack of people which were now filling the chamber like a tidal wave.
He kept his gun calmly aimed at the robed man, Izzie and the boy behind gave cries as the hooded figures surrounded the scene in a nearly ritual way.
Many thoughts crossed Henry’s mind, but the finality of the situation quickly reached him, and likewise the other two behind him.
-”You are not the one we seek, neither was this boy. This was not your tale after all detective. Now, drop your weapon. Gehoorsaam.”

[Moosetroop11]

Dun dun dunnn!

[Momeka]

Note to self: Finish reading these and start posting them on the itchio page again.

[Prpl_Mage]

Well, gonna compile them into a pdf with some extra stories and authentic formating is the idea. It's just that I still don't have access to my computer because of renovations so still on hold.

[Prpl_Mage]

I wasn't in my fast mood. But Momeka did the honours and uploaded the pdf on the itch page as well.

Updated some of the stories and fixed some errors in them. Also added some more stories that I didn't post here and included some sprites to go with each story.

https://charas-project.itch.io/stories-from-spring-valley