MURDER AT MIDNIGHT!👣🌙🔪

"Open up!" she shouted at the top of her voice, knocking the door hardly. There was darkness everywhere. It was horrifying. Tears trickled down her eyes. She was left with just a pillow, a torch given by Stewart and her favorite novel labeled, "MURDER AT MIDNIGHT" in small, loving characters. The place was eerily quiet. All around her was deathly silence. Suddenly, it was broken by a mournful cry. It did not even sound human. The end was near, she thought and switched on her torch. Terror-stricken, she closed her eyes. The world went pitch black.

It was 11:00 p.m. Everyone in the house was sleeping, except for the cousins, who were playing Truth Or Dare in a separate room. Bella and her elder brother, Bilson, had met their cousins-Nick and Stewart, after a whole year. "Let's see whose turn comes next. Everybody ready?" commented Stewart while rotating the pencil. Around five seconds later, it stopped and pointed towards Bella. "Truth or dare?" questioned Nick.

"Dare!" whispered Bella. They were busy playing when all of a sudden, a piece of paper flew past Bella's eyes. "What is it about?" asked Bilson inquiringly. The paper was entitled 'NOTICE'. She quoted it to everyone. It said, "This room is sealed off... Years and years ago, there was a string of bizarre deaths in the room, and legend has it that anyone who spends the night here will die..." A chill went down Bella's spine. "Which room is it about?" asked Nick, curiously.

"The one in front of which you are standing. That black door," answered Bella, pointing towards it.

"But I'm a bit confused. Last week, when my family and I shifted to this new house, Dad warned me not to open this black door as he said that it had no lights in it and so he had temporarily sealed it, not in the mood for any further expenditures over the house. He said, however, that he would make it a storeroom later," she added.

"While this notice says totally different things about the room," said Stewart thoughtfully, mocking at her.

"So, I've decided your dare. You would have to spent a night in this room. Don't be scared. We promise we'll get you out by 5:30 a.m., as the Sun rises," added Stewart in an amusing manner.

"No way! I'm not doing that!" replied Bella, her eyes popping out of her sockets.

"You don't believe what your dad says? This notice is just a myth. There is nothing horror about this room. Look, even the letter is written with a fountain pen. Dare is dare!" bounced back Stewart with a wicked smile.

"Why don't you understand? No means no!" said Bella.

"You're such a coward- you wouldn't be able to face life then. Why don't you die?"

"Who are you to say me that? Seriously......Ok, then- the dare is accepted!" replied Bella, her eyes red with fury.

"Take this torch with you," laughed Stewart.

She picked up her pillow, a novel and the torch and went inside the black door. The door opened with a creaking sound. She was petrified by the darkness. The moment she entered the room, Stewart locked and sealed the door from the outside. Bella knocked hard, but no success."

The following morning, everyone was shocked as Bella was found lying dead in the room! Everyone felt surprised and ashamed while the parents were gloomy on what the cousins had done. They had lost the only gem of their life. Mum kept on staring at Stewart and Bella's dead body at the same time because Stewart had given the idea of such a dare.

It was 17th August, 2019 when I received a call. The speaker said, "Hello! Am I talking to the criminal Investigator, Mr. Haider Mohammed Hassan?" His voice was too raw with pain for him to speak.

"Yes sir," I replied.

"My name is Bilson and I'm talking from my residence- House # 3, Fleet Street, Defense Colony. I've something to report. Last night, a murder took place at our home. She was my younger sister. I want you to come, investigate and figure out the real culprit," continued the speaker.

"Ok. I'll reach by 9:00 a.m. sharp," I said and placed the receiver back.

The door bell pealed through the clatter and an old man opened the door. "Hello! My name is Haider Mohammed Hassan and I'm here to investigate the murder that took place last night,"

The moment I said this, the old man's color faded away.

"Who called you?" questioned the man inquisitively with his eyes wide open.

"Your only son, Bilson," I replied.

Something was fishy, I thought as I observed the quiet and feared facial expressions of the man. I felt the pungent smell of cigarette smoke diffusing away as the person spoke. I met the whole family and the two cousins, Nick and Stewart, peering intently at everyone. Stewart was the only one who was listening to songs at such a sad event.

The old man and Bilson then took me to the room where the incident had taken place. I switched on my torch, took out my investigation tools and examined each and every corner. The dead body was charred beyond recognition, badly laid on the floor. It was covered with a heap of blood. I took photographs with my camera and investigated deeply with a magnifying glass. I ran the fingerprint scanner over it but no success. I could sniff a pungent smell. The culprit was clever as no fingerprints were scanned- he had worn gloves maybe. But he was surely not a professional killer, because the only deep cuts I could come across were on the stomach. He probably failed to kill and choked her in the end. I was standing up, picking up my equipment when all of a sudden I saw a bud of cigarette near the corpse. I picked it up with tweezers and placed it inside a plastic bag. The very first suspect which came in my mind was Bella's own father. He was the only smoker in the family. We saw in the CCTV footage that at 11:30 p.m., a person covered in a black shawl and wearing a black ghost mask came inside the room out of nowhere and stick a photograph to the camera of the exactly same room with torchlight, but empty. At 12:05 a.m., he removed the picture and Bella's dead body was seen. I noted down the details.

I showed the cigarette bud to Bella's dad, the old man and he froze for a second. At the same moment, a knife dropped down his pocket. He was horrified and said that he was going to the kitchen to cut some vegetables. Now my suspect was about to be confirmed. The man totally denied what he was going to be accused of. "Why would I kill my only daughter?" he shouted.

Stewart entered the scene. And he was smoking a cigarette! "You smoke as well?" I questioned, surprisingly. I showed him the cigarette bud and saw beads of sweat dropping down his temple. He totally denied being the murderer and said, "I live in Japan, which is far, far away. There's a long distance between us. Nothing serious could take place that would lead to a murder. I used to hardly talk to her, and my brother, Nick and I reached this house yesterday evening."

I scanned the fingerprints of the two people as soon as I suddenly came across a bloody fingerprint on the cigarette bud. I matched it and it was found to be of Stewart's!

Stewart cried and denied hard, saying that it was just a blame game, but my tools could never deceive me. He was sent to the jail and I drove back. But the question still in my mind was that how could this happen? For what reason would Stewart murder her cousin who lives far away?

Bella's dad took a sigh of relief and closed the house gate with a hidden smile. He was the real murderer! When ready to murder, he had cleverly worn plastic gloves with the same fingerprint as that of Stewart's. He had a sick mentality of hating any daughters and liked to have sons only, so he killed his daughter! He wanted to send his nephew to the jail as he was envious of his own brother, who lived in Japan, because he had been successful throughout his life and was living a luxurious life as a doctor. Nobody knew the real murderer!

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