Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem

Chapter 1

“It’s a little farther down the river; we’re almost there I reckon” James said to me as he continued to intently push us down the river with the long wooden pole he was holding. I sat in the boat now, my pole lay across my lap. The sun was setting now, and it reflected golden off the surface of the water. I stared at it and thought to myself, that’s got to be one of the prettiest sites I have ever seen.
I knew the truth about what he was saying. It was just a little farther down the river. But it wasn’t what he said it was. Poor fellow, it isn’t his fault he’s demon possessed I thought to myself. Of course he probably wasn’t demon possessed. I felt in my leather coat for my knife, still there.
We had been on the river for two hours. I had come to him seeking his services, five pieces of silver for a trip up the river to the town of Lebin. My guise had been a simple farmer, going to visit some relatives; he bought it. My real vocation was far more interesting and less believable.
I could not bring my partner, Simeon, with me on this lead. That had been a first. He always accompanied me on every lead I got. He told me he came from a rich family so I had no idea why he would want to come with me to do what I do. But he enjoyed it. We had met when I was investigating him. He had proven himself innocent.
I watched James continue to push us up the river. His back was turned to me, and he had taken off his shirt an hour ago. I could tell he was very strong. He must have been doing this a long time. The thought made me shudder. How many? Sixteen reported cases, but how many unreported?
This man was my second lead this month; the first had been unsuccessful, just a bear killing the villagers. Of course they attributed it to the weird man who lived by himself. And of course they instantly thought he was possessed by a demon. I wasn’t so quick to dispatch him as they would be. I believed people should be innocent until proven guilty, or something like that. I also didn’t believe demons actually possessed people. But that’s what people call it when someone goes crazy.
I was paid to kill the demon possessed people, but I usually didn’t do that. I investigated and in almost all my cases found natural causes or that we had the wrong killer. I took this job not because I enjoy killing these poor people, but because I wanted to save innocent lives. I’ve saved the lives of thirty two people who I have investigated and found innocent.
People in this time are blood thirsty. More innocent people are killed for crimes they didn’t commit then the people killed by criminals. The people are obsessed with “demon possessed” killers these days. I knew this would end eventually, I hoped it would end. Soon these people must realize they are the real killers. I hope.
James stopped pushing us and turned around. He turned his pole horizontal and then sat down in the boat with me. “Arthur” he said, “I have something to tell you.”
Are you going to tell me why all these people have gone on your boat and then disappeared? I thought. But I didn’t say anything.
“You’ve saved a lot of innocent lives Arthur, but there is reason to suspect you have taken a lot of lives as well.”
“I’m just a simple farmer I-“
“No. Your sent on missions to kill the “demon possessed”, and you where sent to kill me I know it all.”
“How…” he held up his hand and I trailed off.
“This isn’t a real case Arthur; I work for boss to. I’m not a killer, but you might be.”
“Ok go on, explain.” This wasn’t very surprising; it was like my boss to do something like this.
“You know you’ve set a great example for the rest of us, but there is an extremely unlikely coincidence surrounding your cases.”
“What is it?”
James paused then said, “I just want you to know, Arthur, I don’t believe you actually did it.”
“Did what?! Tell me what I supposedly did!”
“On the last fifteen cases you’ve been on there has been nineteen different people killed all in the same way, other then the people killed by the “demon possessed” you where investigating. And they all where killed while you where there investigating. They where all killed with knifes, which of course you where equipped with. And all their money was stolen”
“Well I’ll have to prove myself innocent then.”
“I know, and I’m giving you a chance to do that.”


Chapter 2

“Don’t worry Arthur; we’ve all ready narrowed it down to two people. We’ll just investigate both of them and figure out which one it is. Simple.” Simeon said energetically as he walked along with me to the residence of Joshua, our first suspect.
If I didn’t know you well enough, you would be my first suspect I thought of Simeon, but dismissed it. I did know Simeon well enough. And I knew he hadn’t done it.
Joshua was a friend of Simeon. Not one that Simeon particularly preferred to associate with, but a friend none the less. Simeon had brought him up as a suspect. That’s when I realized Simeon thought even less of Joshua then I had originally estimated.
Joshua did fit. He fit quite perfectly. He seemed to always have money that no one knew how he had got. He carried a knife around for no apparent reason. And he was always around Simeon and me when we where on our cases, especially of late.
“So if it’s him how do we expose him?” I asked Simeon.
“Catch him doing it. Go on a “case”; make somebody count their money right in front of him. If that doesn’t work we try it again. If it is him eventually he’ll bite.”
We came upon the log cabin where Simeon last knew Joshua to be living in. It was a moderate sized cabin with no windows. It wasn’t extremely deep into the woods; only a small hike off the road. We walked up to the door. Simeon knocked on it.
“Joshua” he called, “Are you here, it’s Simeon and Arthur.” There was only silence. We waited for ten seconds before calling again, but there was still only silence.
“We can talk to him later” I said as I turned around. I spotted him coming towards us. He held a bloodied knife in his hand and on his waist was a money bag I had never seen before. It bounced up and down and smacked against his side as he trotted towards his house, still unaware of our presence.
“Let’s go behind the cabin” I whispered to Simeon who had just now spotted Joshua coming towards us. We quietly relocated to the back of the cabin before Joshua could spot us. Luckily he was looking around and behind him for any possible pursuers.
Once Joshua had entered his house I pointed farther into the forest. Simeon nodded and we stealthily snuck away from the house. Once we where at a considerably safe distance I spoke again,
“It’s definitely him now it’s just a matter of proving it to everyone else.”
“Why didn’t we just rush him right there? I mean what more proof do they want?”
“I’m proud to say I’ve raised their standards, it isn’t that easy any more, but that’s a good thing.”
“Well your raised standards are a huge hassle right now.”
“Maybe a hassle, but if it saves one innocent life, everything is worth it.”

Chapter 3

James sat on the bench in the middle of the town square. His money bags where filled fat (with woodchips) and laid out for the whole town to see. This had easily caught Joshua’s attention. He could not contain his excitement.
“Look at that guy; I reckon he’s got two hundred silver coins in those bags!”
We had invited Joshua on this case, and he had been eager to come when he heard we where going to a rich merchant town. Now that I knew the truth about this man it became so painfully obvious. All the ways which he had acted in the past became clear to me. I thought something must be seriously wrong with his head if he was willing to kill that much just for the money in the average person’s money bag. But I still couldn’t bring myself to say he was actually possessed by a demon. No I just thought something was seriously wrong with the way he thought.
We told Joshua that we had to do some investigating about a mile out of town, but he was welcome to stay in town. He quickly agreed and was out of our site in an instant. We walked straight out of the town square and then turned towards the small forest situated next to the town. This was about the time James should be collecting his money bags and getting up. We knew Joshua wasn’t dumb enough to murder someone in the middle of a busy town square. We waited behind a small building.
“Arthur, it’s been really fun, but this is personal you know.” Simeon whispered. He had a point. Anyways, I love working with you and after this is cleared up everything is going to be normal around here hopefully.”
James emerged from the town square and into the suburban sprawl of the outer part of town. Behind him Joshua followed from a distance. I could see there was extreme desire in his eyes. I had never seen a man so driven after money.
We followed them from a block away. Then all four of us entered the forest, quickly moving towards them as we knew Joshua would attack soon. We used trees to hide us from Joshua, but they where unneeded, his eyes where on his prize. I saw him slip his knife from his belt. He clenched it in his fist until his hand started to turn white.
At this point we had gone completely out of site from any body in town. I inched closer to Joshua with Simeon following close behind me. I took out my own knife and prepared myself for a fight. I spotted my boss. James was heading straight towards him. O no! He hadn’t seen him! If they walk right into him Joshua would recognize him! I had introduced them once before.
In a flash Joshua ran towards James, but he hit the ground with a thud as my boss tackled him. I ran to them and helped subdue him. Simeon stayed behind in the trees.
Joshua stopped struggling fairly quickly. He lay on the ground staring at the sky.
“Just kill me.”
“We could put you in a jail cell for the rest for your life. It wouldn’t be much of a life, but at least it’s a life. You deserve death, but I say as long as society is protected from you, you can live.”
“No…” he said shaking his head, “Just kill me.”
“Are you sure-“
“Kill me!!!” he screamed. And I killed him.

Chapter 4

Simeon and I strode up to the familiar log cabin. We hadn’t talked at all about what happened yesterday. I hadn’t asked why he hadn’t come out of the trees to help subdue Joshua like he was supposed to. But I understood.
I kicked open the door to the cabin. I was instantly hit by a weird smoky smell. I looked around at the largely empty cabin, except for a bed and a drawer.
“What did he spend all his money on?” I asked not expecting an answer. How would Simeon know anyways? Simeon was silent. He walked over to the drawer and opened it. He pulled out a money bag and poured it out onto the floor. A white powdery substance that I had never seen before came out.
“This is what he spent his money on. He wasn’t killing people for the money; he was killing people for this. And believe me there is a difference. I have been at that point in my life” Simeon said.
“What is this stuff? What are you talking about?”
“You know how I told you my family is rich?”
“Yea.”
“But I never told you what they did.”
“Yea.”
A single tear drop rolled down his cheek. I watched it come to the end of his chin and then hang on for a few seconds before dropping off. He semi collected himself and began again.
“Well my family sells this stuff to people like Joshua, people who are addicted and can’t live without this stuff. That’s why Joshua wanted to die; he couldn’t live without this stuff. I was once addicted myself. I introduced Joshua to it. I killed a man for this stuff. Luckily for me my family was able to frame another guy for the murder. Remember when I proved myself innocent? I was guilty. But when I’m around you I found I could enjoy life with out this stuff. Because that’s all this stuff really does, it lets you enjoy your life. But then it goes away. If you can learn to enjoy your life with out this stuff you would be a lot better off. I had to disassociate my self with my family. They took advantage of people. I couldn’t live like that, and so I cling to you.”
I was beginning to understand what Simeon was telling me. Even though I really didn’t know what this stuff was I started to realize what it did to people.
“Well Simeon if you promise not to be involved with that stuff anymore in any way, I will completely forgive you for your murder.”
“I’ve already decided to do that.”
“Good. Now let’s put this behind us all right?” I said, pointing to the white powder strewn across the ground.
“All right” he nodded.
“We, my friend, must now concentrate on saving innocent lives. I’ve been thinking about setting up a system where people accuse other people of something, but then have to go and prove it before the accused person is punished. Maybe we can have some people vote on if the person is innocent or guilty. Carpe Diem! This will be great!”
“Sounds like a good idea.”
“I know, I think boss will like it.”