Welcome to Forge Town

Every Christmas, there will be a holiday of three to four weeks.This is one of the major holidays for students in country E, comparable to the long Easter holiday and the longest summer vacation; each school year is divided into three semesters.

During these free days, students can arrange leisure activities independently, such as starting a trip around Europe, plans that are usually difficult to implement, or others.Making the most of your time is an important part of learning.

As a faculty member, Nicole is naturally lucky to receive this wonderful benefit.

In the past half a month, she has been particularly keen on pastry making recently-perhaps to commemorate the death of Petty, she will hone her pastry skills whenever she has free time.For example, this morning, she baked an angel cake according to the recipe left by Petty, and invited Simon to come and taste it.

Although Simon bluntly said that this kind of pastry is too childish (it is undeniable that it often appears in the party held by his aunt), but after eating, he still reluctantly gave a "taste is not bad" evaluation - you know, for Simon, who hates sweets, this is already the highest praise.At the same time, it also gave Nicole great spiritual help.

So after sending Simon some bread and sending him back, she baked some Jaffa cakes while her hands were warm—after all, she doesn’t have many friends, and handmade biscuits are an excellent holiday gift, a symbol of lofty intentions that have nothing to do with money .Among them, Jiafa cake is her best. She hopes that the soft cake body and the sweet and sour orange filling can conquer Allen's taste buds.

However, when she carried the beautifully packaged box and went to Allen's house with a happy mood, she unexpectedly saw that the front door of Simon's house was unnaturally wide open.The simple and elegant door curtain inside the original installation was blown high by the wind, and the glass window framed on the door panel was shattered all over the place.

She frowned, and quickly unscrewed Allen's unlocked door.She called Allen's name softly, walked around every floor, tried to ask what happened next door, but found that the whole building was empty.

In fact, this is a completely predictable situation.After all, Alan could have thousands of reasons not to be at home.But for some reason, Nicole had a very ominous premonition.This feeling came spontaneously from the bottom of her heart, and it was a strong perception.Especially in connection with what happened at Simon's house just now, she, who has taken basic courses such as elementary forensics and criminal investigation, believes that it must be related.

Thinking of this, she hurriedly picked up the microphone placed in the living room and called the police hotline, only to find out that the damn landline didn't respond at all!

Things couldn't be worse, she threw the microphone angrily, and then picked up the leather bag that had been left on the sofa.She had to hurry back to the infirmary, there were other phones there, and she had to call for help!

But when he turned his head, there was actually a person standing at the door that was originally empty.

It was a man, looking at her with his chest crossed.His figure was as tall and strong as a giant, with an unquestionable sense of oppression.Standing in the backlight, he could hardly see his appearance clearly, like a mass of overexposed black mist, falling on the smooth ground and dragging a long shadow.

Nicole immediately recognized the figure—even though she only saw it briefly last night, she intuitively knew that it was Allen's roommate, Brandon Kirclough.Oh, or shall we also say, that's a dubious enigma who "self-proclaims" Brandon Kerclough!

Thinking of his unknown origin so far, Nicole took a step back warily.

And just as she stepped back, the man also spoke. "If you want to call the police, I advise you not to rush, the phone line here has been cut by me a long time ago." The other party said.His voice is as low and steady as his hilly figure. "And if you want to find Simon or Allen, don't bother. One of them is dead and the other is unconscious. Just stay in the next room." The man said.

The other party's tone could not hide the ridicule, like a big boy teasing his young sister.But in the face of this over-the-top joke, Nicole didn't want to ask the reason at all, so that he could have a fresh idea of ​​​​damaging the phone line.She was afraid that the answer would make her unhappy.

"Thank you for your vigilance, sir." She raised her chin and looked into the other person's eyes, "I'm just here to deliver the freshly baked pastry. You're just in time, so I'll hand it over to you. Remember to tell Alan that I came." She smiled. , the voice is full of confidence.It doesn't seem to be affected at all.

"But you're nervous, ma'am." Watching her face, Brandon let out a chuckle. "Although you barely looked into my eyes, your pupils constricted, your fingers trembled, and your toes tensed, like a frightened wild cat—you are about to escape from here, aren't you?" he analyzed.Each sharp word was like a bullet, spit out from his mouth, and shot at Nicole's fragile heart.

He now took a few steps forward.Once out of the light and shadow, that profound and handsome face was exposed in Nicole's field of vision.He smiled and turned his head to look at her, with an unrestrained appearance and eyes as deep as the sea.Presumably, if it wasn't for this occasion, he would definitely win the hearts of all the girls.

But looking at those eyes, Nicole just frowned and tensed every inch of her body.Sure enough, the facial features in front of her gave her an extremely strong sense of familiarity, just like what she felt at the party.So she was sure now that she had seen this face a long time ago, maybe more than once.

But... where is it?

She searched hard for any corner of her head, eager to find the answer, and reached her left hand into the back pocket of her jeans.There was a Swiss knife that she carried with her, usually used for self-defense, but she did not expect it to come in handy today.Indeed, she was nervous.It was clearly a dry and cold December day, but it made her secrete a fine and thin sweat.

But Brandon seemed to be able to see through her thoughts, and then looked at the left hand behind her back. "Relax, Ms. Vance. Please believe me, I have no intention of hurting you." He said softly, then raised his right hand and smiled at her. "If there is, you won't have any chance of escape."

He shook his raised hand and lit up the contents inside.He held a smooth object in his hand.It reflected the light outside the house, dazzling and sharp, and Nicole couldn't help turning her head to avoid the sting.

Then Brandon dropped it, letting it hit the floor with a loud clang.

Nicole saw it, and it was a Swiss knife, just like the one she owned.Shocked by this, she belatedly touched the pocket, only to find that the contents inside had disappeared before long!

But Brandon has yet to take the next step.It seemed that, as he said, he didn't have any thoughts of harming others, and what he was doing so far was just a precaution for self-protection.

The two were at a stalemate, but Brandon suddenly spoke. "It's almost time for the police to arrive," he said.Then, regardless of Nicole's feelings, she walked out of the house.

Nicole was stunned for a while, and then moved a step—due to the confrontation just now, she felt that her legs and feet were a little weak at this time, but she didn't dare to show the slightest.Immediately followed.

And Brandon really didn't lie to her.As soon as she left the room, Nicole saw several police officers standing in front of Simon's house.Brandon was still standing at the door, looking at the neighbor from a distance, without moving a bit.This scene made Nicole a little dizzy: Well, who called the police now?Isn't Brandon the murderer?Why don't you run away!She was really going to be fooled by this weird rhythm!

■

It was a weird room, and the eyes were blood red.

Red carpet, red bed, red walls.There are several real bones hanging on the wall, as well as some iron and steel instruments of suspicious origin.

Also, there is a bed in the center of the room.The bed sheet was scattered in a mess, and there was still a pair of unlocked handcuffs left on it - 10 minutes ago, there were people lying on it, but at this time they had been sent to the Central Hospital.

Another man was lying on the brown carpet beside the bed, but unfortunately, he is now lifeless.The wide-open sky-colored pupils are staring at the ceiling, and the white woolen sweater has large dark brown stains, like a black rose soaked in blood.

Judging from the color and coagulation degree of the blood on the carpet, Nicole guessed that it should have been released within two hours.But based on the angle at which his skull was turned, she surmised that excessive bleeding was not the real cause of his death.He should have died the first time after being attacked by twisting his neck, and then fell to the ground.Blood overflowed from the shattered skull, and was absorbed by the carpet blackly, and finally smudged into a strange mandala on the ground.

Of course, at this moment, she can only concentrate on doing these objective data analysis, pretending that everything has nothing to do with her - after all, if she can choose, she would rather keep herself in such a state of detached consciousness forever, so that she doesn't have to face Sad news for her longtime friend, Simon Pearson, who died on Christmas Day!

But that's how it happened.This, she thought sadly, was undoubtedly the most dismal start to the year.From an astonishingly bad news.It was so unbelievably weird and without warning.

There are many layers in between.For example, Nicole doesn't know how Simon, a heterosexual, hooked up with Allen and has an unknown sexual obsession.And according to the human bones hanging on the wall, Simon may also be involved in some disappearance cases.All kinds of new information that subverted her outlook on life made her stunned and unbelievable.

Oh no, maybe it's not really completely silent.At this moment, Nicole suddenly remembered the man who always made her inexplicably familiar.She walked closer to the window and looked at it, and she could still see Brandon still staying under the arcade of Allen's house.He stood there with his chest crossed and smoking a cigarette, watching the police rush in and out.It seems to be observing, and it seems to be deliberately keeping a safe distance.

She thought that she would never forget those sea blue eyes when she passed by just now.They are extremely indifferent, and seem to be more calm than her, a doctor who has experienced life and death-but if it is true what Brandon said, he just went to Simon's house to borrow the phone and accidentally found the scene of death, how could he be so calm What about your expression?After all, according to common sense, ordinary people would inadvertently reveal a little bit of panic when encountering such a thing, wouldn't they?

Nicole intuitively felt that this guy was absolutely inextricably linked to these recent events.It's a pity that before she really remembered Brandon's origin, she still couldn't estimate it accurately.It seems that we can only wait for Alan to wake up, and then ask him.

But before that, she immediately noticed another thing.She always felt that when Officer Ron passed by Brandon just now, his eyes were a little weird, as if mixed with some degree of doubt, questioning, and... understanding.

As if, he had already noticed something.

The author has something to say:

The first update in 2017, I wish you all a happy new year o^_^o!

If you have any thoughts, welcome to report back to me, please leave a message to hook up, please collect and support~~XDDD