[Majestically, Fresh]

  After a surprisingly drama free dinner, sitting between Groucho and Nyx. I can only surmise that Groucho was so happy to have his favorite organ back, that his entire attention was on that and not making rude or inappropriate jokes. Frida had warned Nyx on the way into dinner, if she didn’t act like a very proper lady during dinner there would be no delightful punishment afterwards. So Nyx spent the entire dinner being downright charming to Maz.

  Then we adjourned to my bedroom so that Nyx would receive her reward. Nyx had tickled me relentlessly in literal hell. I’d laughed so hard my core muscles ached for days, so honestly I was looking forward to seeing her get a taste of her own medicine.

  “Time to strip Jaq.”

  “No I thought you wanted to get tortured to night Nyx.”

  “Oh I do, very much so, but this is still very much a part of your torture, so I want you naked and exposed, I want your girlfriend to watch you as she tortures me.”

  “No, I refuse, it makes sense if it’s me being tortured, but I won’t strip for you just because you want to see me naked.”

  “Jaq, I told you, demons love gratuitous nudity, it’s instinctual, we can’t help it. Well if you won’t strip, either wait in the hallway, or we’ll torture you instead, your choice.”

  “Fine, I’ll wait in the hallway, but five minutes no more.”

  “Frida walked out of the bathroom wearing a present from Nyx, a black leather and nylon ensemble that left very little to the imagination that suited her perfectly. She was carrying a riding crop that she casually smacked against her palm.”

  I was regretting my decision, I really wanted to watch Frida in action, but I didn’t want Nyx to have the last say. So I went out into the hallway. A second later I heard a crack, quickly followed by a moan, the cracks got closer and closer together and the moans grew louder and longer. Nyx sounded like she was in ecstasy then after a brief lull I heard a pop. Nyx stood beside me.

  “I’ll bet you’re sorry you missed that Jaq” and pop, she was gone.

  The door clicked open and Frida dragged me inside. Frida is a very passionate woman, but she took it to another level tonight. Finally both exhausted, Nyxi crawling in between us we fell asleep.

  ***

  I got up to use the loo in the middle of the night, I heard music, it wasn’t “Hit the Road Jack” it was familiar, a classical piece, something about a puppet I think. It was almost four in the morning. For some reason I felt compelled to find out who was playing this song. I slip on my nightgown and robe and pad barefoot through the mansion, the song appears to be coming from the eastern tower hallway. I moved down the hall and promised myself I wouldn’t touch the portal if one appeared.

  ***

  I woke up the next morning to a scream. I must have slept late, Frida and Nyxi were both missing from the bed. The screaming continued. I threw on my robe and headed toward the blood curdling sound. A woman in a very revealing french maid outfit knelt over the body of my grandfather who had a knife in his back. I looked at the maid, it was Skye.

  “You did this, didn't you Jacqueline? We all heard you two fighting last night.”

  “Of course I didn’t do this. I was in bed all night with Frida.”

  Just then Frida and Arthur Farthing walked into the hallway hand in hand, when Frida saw the body, she turned away, throwing herself into Farthing's arms. What the hell is going on here.

  “Someone call the police.” I said.

  “The phone is down, it’s been down for days you know that, that’s why you chose now to kill him.” Skye said.

  My grandmother arrived and looked like the shock might knock her over. Luckily Collins arrived just in time to prop her up then lead her to a chair in the hall. I had no idea why Skye was accusing me.

  Collins directed Skye to get a sheet to cover the body, so she left the room to comply. Soon she was back with a white sheet she and Collins used to cover the body. It was soon stained red. My granddad was dead, stabbed in his own house. My grandmother looked at me coldly, did she already think I murdered the man I loved most in the world.

  I was being accused of the crime, my alibi was in the arms of another man. If I didn’t figure out who’d killed my grandfather, they might strike again. I approached my grandmother.

  “I can’t speak to her now Collins, get her out of here.”

  Collins grabbed me by the arm, escorted me to the base of the tower.

  “Go to your room Jaq. Get dressed.”

  I slowly walked up to my room, I was in shock, but slowly the wheels in my brain started to turn. Why were Frida and Farthing together? Had they killed my grandfather together, then used each other as alibis. But why what’s their motive? Besides that it went against everything I knew about her.

  While getting dressed I noticed a deerstalker on top of my dresser. What is that doing there, is someone trying to frame me. I needed help. I got dressed and headed for the barn to talk to Maz, I’d grab Harry out of the pottery studio and talk this out with the two of them.

  The greenhouse was deserted, worse, it looked exactly like it did before Maz converted it to a studio for Harry. Who also was nowhere in sight. It was still early, he could be at breakfast, or still in his room at the mansion. But you’d think that all the screaming would have drawn him to the hall.

  I continued onto the barn. It was deserted. No Maz, no equipment, no Groucho’s bedroom, no Groucho, no concrete steps leading down into a dragon’s lair. Was I losing my mind? Had I hallucinated all these fantastical creatures, who’d believe me if I told the story they’d lock me up for sure. A talking monkey, a dragon, a five hundred year old man who looked like he was in his late twenties, and a beautiful fun loving demon.

  I looked at my hand, my Eye of Horus tattoo, that was gone too. Not gone, never there by the looks of my hand. Maybe I really did kill him, if I thought he was someone else, someone there to hurt my family. Collins would send a footman to the town to fetch the police.

  I walked to the center of the maze, the fastest most direct route. No ADHD today. A naked Aya sat meditating, I stripped and sat next to her. After an hour or so I started to get dressed.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “You must be Jaq, my name is Aya…”

  “Asada, I know you in another life.”

  “Really tell me about it.”

  “It’s too fantastical, no one would ever believe me, besides I’m sure the police will be here to arrest me soon enough.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “Because my granddad is dead, according to Skye I argued with him last night.”

  “Do you always kill the people you argue with Jaq?”

  “No, I do not.”

  “Well, that’s a relief, I’d hate to have a disagreement with you if you did.”

  “What did you argue about?”

  “As far as I remember, we didn’t argue. In my reality, he’s lost in the eastern tower. Which you’ve never seen, because it only appears sometimes late at night. I know quite a convenient story right.”

  “No, I'd characterize it as inconvenient, hard to prove unless someone is willing to investigate it. How about I get dressed and you tell me the whole story, what have you got to lose?”

  “Nothing I guess.”

  So I told her the whole story from my muddy arrival to our overthrow of Literal Heaven, all the characters and side characters along the way.

  “So what do you think?”

  “Three possibilities, everything you just said is true and you are from another reality or you are psychotic or you killed the colonel and want to use an insanity defense.”

  “See I told you it’s too fantastical.”

  “Are you angry that I don’t believe that story?”

  “No, I wouldn’t believe it either, I’m a rationalist and the only reason I believe it is because it happened to me.”

  “That means you’re not psychotic if you were and I challenged your belief, you’d be angry indeed. Now we’re down to two possibilities. It’s true or you are sure you’ll be caught and want to use the insanity defense. But if that is true, you made the story too fantastical and you’ll never remember all the details you just gave me. But I will, I have a perfect recall of auditory memory. Right down to the pitch of your voice.”

  “So now that I can sink your insanity defense are you feeling a little angry or scared?”

  “No of course not and I wouldn’t try using an insanity defense, grandma wouldn’t allow the scandal. If they have that much evidence against me, I’d plead guilty because I’d have to assume I’d done it.”

  “Don’t ever admit that to the police, they are notoriously lazy, if they find a convenient suspect they’ll try and pin the crime on them. It’s what lazy people do. Besides I believe you, I do think you are from another reality, and I’ll even prove it to you, but no court of law will accept it. First answer me one question, when you went into the tower for the first time, you claim that you carried something out, what is the item you carried out.”

  “My grandfather’s pith helmet.”

  “Are you one hundred percent certain?”

  “Yes absolutely”

  “I’ve seen fifty to a hundred pictures of the Colonel, in the picture albums your grandmother has collected, and he never once had on a pith helmet. He always wore a deerstalker.”

  “I have one of those on my dresser. Right where the helmet is in my reality.” So did the me from this reality murder granddad?”

  “That’s yet to be determined, but it is a possibility, you may have been following her song last night.”

  “Yes but I don’t remember touching a portal.”

  “Maybe if two copies of the same person are close to a portal it swaps them, with the person who actually touched the portal in control. That’s why you ended up in bed asleep after just hearing the song. What’s worse is that your girlfriend may well be in bed with a murderer.”

  “I need to get back to my reality, if the other Jaq, hurts Frida, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

  “Just hide here in the maze, tonight enter the house and access the tower, hopefully it’ll swap you back.”

  “Thanks for believing in me Aya, I was starting to not trust myself.”

  I expected the police to search the maze, but that never happened. A little after midnight, I left the maze and went back into the house. I used the same room, Draco, Groucho and Harry waited in, when we were entering the tower. Waiting makes my anxiety spike, a possibly murderous version of myself might have spent the rest of the night with my girlfriend.

  I was trying to give ‘not me’ the benefit of the doubt, I certainly wouldn’t accuse her of murder. That would be up to the police of her world. Murder by stabbing, must have a high probability of leaving dna evidence, the knife buried in granddad’s back, might have both dna and fingerprints.

  I heard the odd song and left the room, touching the portal. I was transported back to my Tregaron I assume because Frida threw her arms around my neck kissing me.

  “What are you two doing here?”

  “We caught a doppelganger and hoped that you’d find a way back, but she just vanished, as you came through the portal.”

  “How did you know she wasn’t me?”

  “She was trying to wash blood off herself, that she refused to explain but the real kicker was Nyxi, she knew immediately, she started hissing and wouldn’t remain in the same room. A little while after I left her out of the bedroom, Nyx showed up and just froze the faux Jaq. We kept her hidden all day in your room. We knew you didn’t leave on your own, you had no shoes on and the knapsack was still on the floor.”

  “Ok Jaq, get back to your room and strip, you missed a day and thereby you owe me a penalty.”