Pandora Express

Chapter 6 "Proof"

Mathias had been suspicious of Hale lately. Normally, Pandora's boxes only have around a 2% chance of killing the sinner. Yet Hale's customers had so far, all died, as an ex-detective, he couldn't be any less interested in such an intriguing case. Now, Mathias was silently following Hale while he was delivering a box through the neighbourhood. Mathias had had his suspicions that Hale had a disorder called DID, or Dissociative Identity Disorder. Reason being that Hale sometimes gave off a different vibe, sometimes he had an innocent boy vibe, sometimes a more mature adult vibe. Mathias had earlier observed that Hale was left handed which was quite rare. Then Hale stood still and massaged his shoulder, his vibe changed. "Fascinating." He muttered to himself, from an innocent boy to a more mature adult, Mathias couldn't tell why, was it the posture, habit, or something else? Mathias stalked Hale with bee-lined focus, ignoring the questionable looks from passing pedestrians. Crunch! Mathias had stepped on a twig, from this far away, Hale couldn't have possibly heard him. Right?

Crunch! Hail heard a soft crunch, he had already had the feeling that someone was following him ever since he swapped with Hale who touched his shoulder whilst massaging it earlier. From his deduction, it was probably Mathias the ex-detective or so he had heard from inside Hale's subconscious, this time Hail wouldn't kill the sinner in order to throw off suspicion. Hail uncapped the pen and wrote on the clipboard he was holding and wrote 'Reminder to myself: Just throw punishment to sinner.' And switched back to Hale with a tap on the shoulder.

Mathias kept following Hale, ignoring the fact that Hale could have noticed. Suddenly, Hale stopped in his tracks, Mathias was afraid that the game was up. But instead Hale wrote something on his clipboard with his right hand. Right hand, Mathias noticed, his suspicions of Hale grew even higher, and what was with that tap on the shoulder? Mathias recounted the facts, Hale was left handed, but became right handed once he massaged his shoulder, and became left handed again once he tapped his shoulder, evidence from starting his walk with his left foot. Mathias would have to try tapping Hale's shoulder in the near future.

Hale noticed that there was a note on the clipboard that said 'Reminder to myself: Just throw punishment to sinner without signature; safer.' He didn't remember when he wrote it at all, but advise to himself couldn't possibly be bad could it? Hale arrived at a Craftsman-styled house, he rang the doorbell to find a man who looked around 40. Although he had many wrinkles on his forehead, a balding head, and that old man smell, he looked as if he could lunge a hundred meters any second. The man was practically bouncing up and down, fingers tapping his other arm a hundred miles per second. This man clearly had too much caffeine. Hale looked at the engravings on the box, "Hello Mr. Jason, I'm here to deliver your unique, one-of-a-kind Pandora's box!"
"I s'pose you want my signature?" Mr. Jason enquired.
"My sincere apologies, but no, sir." Hale apologised as he threw the contents of the box into the wide-eyed Mr. Jason, and shut the door.

Mathias watched as the event unfolded, Hale may have threw the box, which was against the delivery man's guidebook, but that didn't matter to Mathias. After he confirmed that Hale had left, he approached the front door and opened it. Mr. Jason was now on the ground, very still, likely dead. "Eyes are blood-shot, pale skin, probability of drug overdose, high. No signs of foreign causes." Mathias only got more and more confused as there were now more possibilities, with the likeliest being that Hale was simply unlucky, although the theory that Hale had noticed and this death being nothing but a simple coincidence being a potential candidate. Hale was now finally off the hook.