Arcdeluxe's Stories

Numbers

2008-05-09T05:57:09Z

Numbers have long been the subject of much study in the world. It has long been surmised that numbers hold the key to understanding the world. For instance, it has long been known for a fact that the number “Forty-Two” is the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. And the number 12 has long been used as a number for luck. But in all their research, man has long been unable to unlock the true mysteries hidden within these numbers. Therefore, a question has to be asked: how long has it really been?

Like all numbers, the number 10 started off as a simple Integer. Then it was called an Odd number. Later on, although in its Prime, it was not Happy, unlike its friend, the number 20. Perhaps because it was not Powerful, nor was it as Perfect as its neighbor, 11. It wasn’t even Sublime like the number 22. It wasn’t very Friendly or Sociable. In fact, it was quite a Solitary and Deficient number. And one day, it just decided to change itself, but ran into some problems. It was quite a Quinary.

Two dead bodies

2008-05-07T06:10:41Z

The two bodies lay there on the kitchen floor. One of them a male, the other, female. Both around their mid-thirties. They are about a meter away from each other, the bodies, with backs to the floor, face up. A bullet hole sat in the middle of each of their foreheads. Their faces, streamed with dried blood, betrayed the shock of what had happened to them.

The detective crouches in front of the male, latex gloves on his hands. He examines the head, then the bullet hole. He then rifles through the man’s clothes and places their contents inside evidence bags. He reaches for the man’s left hand. It’s missing. He checks again. Still missing. Reaches for the right one. Missing.

He quickly stands and goes over to the female. Checks her hands, and finds none. He walks out of the house and orders the whole place searched.

On a whim, he checks the mailbox, and an expression of surprise enters his face. An officer beside him asks what’s wrong.

“There’s a hand holding a gun in the mailbox,” he says.