FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A special thanks to Newfur for helping me edit this work.

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**CHAPTER XXIV

THE STORY OF OUR LIVES**

30 August

"I wonder what will happen today," Alex said as we started our walk to school.

"Are you excited about something?" I looked at him as he gazed up to the cloudless autumn sky.

"Well, I'm looking forward to learning new things today," he returned my gaze.

"Don't you think you've already studied too much? You already got perfect scores on all of the main subjects."

Using his ice spell, he crafted a walking cane on his left hand, a smoking pipe on his right, and a magnifying glass inside his white dress shirt.

"Knowledge is infinite, my dear brother," he said as he imitates Sherlock Holmes. The impersonation is very remarkable. He closed his eyes and placed the pipe in his mouth, giving me his deep-thinking pose he used to do when we were young. The atmosphere became awkward since I didn't know what is up in his mind and the results afterwards are usually disastrous. However, that awkwardness soon faded as his silly pose caused him to trip over the pavement and fall face first. The ice props shattered due to the high impact. I just smirked and helped him up.

"Open your eyes, Sherlock," I chuckled. "You can't walk to school with your eyes closed."

"Oh, but I can," he sad as he crafted a pair of sunglasses and a long cane. He wore the objects and started to hit the stick on the floor.

"See? I can't see a damn thing, but I can still walk to school. Or," he continued, "I could tie your waist with mine so you can be my guide dog! Or guide fox as our case may be." We both laughed at his joke.

"Okay, enough silliness for one morning, thank you very much," I smiled. "I know you're gonna trip again if you keep that up."

"I guess you're right..." he smiled back. He melted the remains of the ice and we returned to our walk to school. When we arrived, we saw something unusual. A few police cars were parked close to the main building and the main gate was barred with police tape. We saw the rest of our group in the crowd and headed there.

"Hey guys!" I called. "What's going on?"

"School's closed down until further notice," Tony told us.

"What!? Why!?" Alex questioned loudly.

"They say that the basement of our school is a murder scene," Mei explained.

"Murder scene?"

"Yesterday, the basement door was unlocked. And in that basement, there's a pool of blood and a trail that led somewhere in the dark. The body is still missing though, but they found a foot trail close by," Tony told us.

"A... foot trail?" Alex asked, nervously.

"The foot trail leads up towards the stairs but disappeared on the last step," Nick told us. The two of us looked at each other with our mouth slightly opened.

"How'd you guys got this much info?" I asked. "Wait! Don't tell me..."

"Yeah. Louis' holding this one," Nick confirmed my suspicions. I took a quick glance at the entrance to see the silver haired law enforcer stepping out of the building. He noticed our presence and walked his way towards us.

"Hey guys," he smiled.

"Is it really okay for cops to spill info to the public?" I asked.

"Well... no," he replied. "But listen-"

"We need to talk," I cut in abruptly.

"I was gonna say the same thing, Mike," Louis said.

"Alright, somewhere private perhaps?" I asked.

"How bout my car?" he pointed his thumb over to a silver sedan. I nodded in response and headed towards his car. Louis, on the other hand, peered back to the others who were following us.

"Alone? Just the two of us?" he asked them.

"Fine," Mei smiled. "Then I guess we should leave them be."

"Don't worry, I'll question you guys after this," Louis smiled as got in the driver's side and closed the door. His expression soon changed as he faced my direction.

"Do you know why I wanted to talk to you?" Louis asked me.

"I pretty much have an idea," I replied as calm as I could.

"Then can you tell me the reason why you were in there?" he asked once more as he drew out his notepad and pen. I explained the whole story that happened yesterday starting from the request to find the brooch until it was returned. Louis, doing his police job, noted down all of the information I had given him. After I finished, he took a glance through the notes and hummed.

"I'm guessing something's wrong," I said out loud.

"It's nothing serious..." he replied with a smile.

"Fiends, a dead body, and lotsa blood in the basement of a school and nothing is serious?" I asked. "I'm the main suspect, aren't I? I'm totally innocent in this case!" I was beginning to worry. I probably had rambled something incoherently since Louis tried to stop me from speaking any further. Soon, he sighed and placed a finger on my mouth, silencing me in an instant.

"Whoa there," he said. "Just because your bloody footsteps are in the basement doesn't mean that you're the culprit."

"What do you mean?" I asked, raising my voice a little.

"As long as all the evidences don't point towards you, you're off the hook. And I'm certain they won't," Louis replied. "We're going to find the real culprit of this case and I'm certain it's not gonna be you. So don't worry about it."

"Thanks, Louis," I sighed in relief as my mind had been calmed. "I dunno what I'll do without you."

"Becoming a lingering spirit?" he smiled.

"Don't remind me..." I groaned as I was reminded once more of the incident. We stepped out of the car and started walking back to the group. He slowly questioned each and every one of us, referring to the actions we did yesterday. After a while, the whole group was questioned and we stood by the cop's car.

"Since the police department will close down the school for a few days, why don't you guys find something to do?" Louis suggested.

"Well, how about we get to know each other for a while," I asked, looking at Louis. "I don't really know a lot about you, so why don't we chat about that?"

"Hmm... I probably still have time for that, I guess," Louis replied as he checked his watch. "What about you..." He didn't finish his sentence since the others, including my brother, had suddenly left the area without us noticing. "...guys? Where did they go?"

"Looks like they're already gone," I said as I looked around to find them. But my effort seemed fruitless. "Damn... They were gone in a flash."

"Wonder where they went..." Louis mumbled. His answer soon arrived as his cell phone rang. He checked the phone to find a message. He replied it before pocketing it.

"They went ahead to the mall," he told me.

"Then why didn't they wait for us?" I questioned, the hurt apparent in my voice.

"You'd probably ruin the mood by bringing fiends closer," he joked. "But at least we get that bonding time that you wanted."

"I guess you're right. Let's go, then."

The two of us used our time by chatting in a nearby café. As I talked to him, I felt like I had an older brother. It felt like he had known me since my birth. I assumed that it was due to Alex, since the both of us were twins. In that moment, I suddenly remembered about John's reaction yesterday. He was mumbling something after I had mentioned about Alex as a twin brother. Something about it was bothering him.

"You're thinking about something?" Louis interrupted my thoughts.

"Yeah. It's about these cases. Do these things happen frequently?" I asked, staring at the cop. He questioned me with a lift of an eyebrow. "For the past three weeks, a lot of things had happened. And most of them are out of the ordinary. Don't you think it's a little weird?"

Louis paused, tilting his head, thinking over recent events. "Now that you mention it, a lot of Fiend-ish things have been going on lately."

"It feels like we're experiencing stuff that only happens in a game or a story. It's always one after another," I said.

"The only time these events happen frequently was a few years ago - not very long after I met you. And strangely enough, those things revolved around me, then."

"And now, I get to be the center of all these craziness!?" I shook my head.

"The crazy and unusual stories of our lives," Louis chuckled. "We could write it all down like a book."

"Anyone who read it probably won't believe any of it, though," I replied.

"Yeah, especially the story about that white wolf friend of yours. When we first met, he and Ter told me that they were traveling to find their missing friends. Believe it or not, I almost freaked when I first saw him," Louis reminisced.

"I get the feeling," I chuckled. "When was that?"

"A few years before I met you two. That's also when I found out about all these fiend and hunters business."

"If they were traveling, why did they stop in this place?" I asked.

"Because of Mr. Stellar . He was well acquainted with the two when they first met. Said that they're old friends and I believe that they thought that since he's here, maybe their other friends are in this place as well. I wouldn't come up with that conclusion if I didn't know anything about magic and those dimension stuff."

I thought about what Louis said. "So, how did they get here?"

"They went through a dimension rift. They said that it was the only access to other universes."

"I see," I thought about what Louis said. "Can you tell me exactly how you three met?"

He nodded. "Well, it kinda started when I was seventeen. I was working on a case of a rape and murder crime. We finally traced him down to an apartment not too far from here. But unfortunately for us, he escaped. When we chased him down to an old alley close by, he accidentally ran over John who had just arrived here. Out of desperation, he took John as hostage. But, as you can expect from John, he gave him a whopping of a lifetime. We arrested the bad guy and since they're just bystanders, they had to be taken in for questioning. The lieutenant asked me to interrogate those two, and that's probably the first time I saw their looks. And I probably have already told you about my reaction, right?"

"Of course," I smiled. "Anyone would be jumping out of their skins if they saw a walking, talking, wolf and lion wondering about." I stopped talking and rethink my words.

"Talking wolf..." Only at that statement, I realized something. I began to think hard about the possibilities.

'It can't be...' I thought to my self.

"Something up?" Louis asked.

"Louis, hear me out, okay?" I asked as I snapped my head up. "You told me that John said that these rifts are the only passages from one place to another, right?"

"That's what I heard," he nodded.

"And in my past life, Gerald was a fox, an anthropomorphic one like John and Ter. Wouldn't that mean that I came from his world?"

"I guess it would," replied Louis.

"But then, something happened, causing the five of us to be separated, but in this dimension."

"Alright, so what are you get-" Louis stopped mid-sentence as his eyes went wide.

"You get it now?" I asked.

"John and Ter landed here in their wild forms. If you three are the real residents of their world, you should've stayed in those forms when you arrived here."

"But instead, the three of us are humans, not the forms of when we were born," I continued.

Louis continued to think. "So something must've happened during that incident that he's hiding that caused you to become a human."

"That and one other thing in my mind," I said as I stared out of the window.

"Which is...?"

"John and Ter landed in this universe. So if we're here, that means, theoretically, we also landed in this world. So in other words..."

"Your parents couldn't your real parents..." Louis finished. I nodded in sullen agreement.

"But don't you think that there is a possibility that you are-"

"Born here?" I interrupted. "There is, but how? And as I remembered, I've learned that I have talents and traits that neither of my parents have."

We sat there in silence, lost in contemplation.

"It's a sad thought, but I have to know the whole truth," I sighed. "If I were to find out more about me, I have to know whether or not I'm adopted."

"Michael," the cop stared at me. "Sometimes the truth hurts. A lot. Are you sure you're ready to face this whole ordeal?"

"I am," I stared back. "I know I will face the truth of my past, my present, and this mess."

Louis just smiled at my decision and rubbed my head.

"Alright then, kiddo," he chuckled. "I know that you are determined to solve this thing, but you're going to need a lot of help. Just to let you know, I'll support your decision and do my best to help. And may I suggest that we should check with the oldest wolf around for starters?"

"Great idea," I said as we stood up and walked to the door.

"However, it won't be easy since there are a lot of things we don't know about. And whenever we ask him, he always keeps his muzzle shut. To find out more about your past, we have to think of a way to pry this information out of him."

"Maybe we don't have to," I smiled.