Colours of Life and Death

Part 1: The Murder

Reuben Vale was leading the investigation into Paul Maxwell's death. She was a high-rank officer in the NYPD and brought in the best of the best to uncover the mystery, the best forensic investigators, the best detectives etc. She had a good record of hunting down criminals and bringing them to justice. Even so, she had an exceptional intellect and was able to find clues and then deduce who it was and accuse them. Her intellect proved useful every time at every crime scene.

But this was different, when she and her team had entered Maxwell's apartment on Conway Drive, the address given by Maxwell's girlfriend Sara, there was...nothing. No signs of a struggle, the place was neat with Maxwell's dead body on the couch. However, the dead body didn't spill any blood and there were no signs of anything indicating a strangle, no physical damage on his body whatsoever. Suspect Number 1 would have been Sara, who had the keys to the place and could have killed him, but she was crying. She was genuinely upset. She explained that he was watching TV while she went shopping and then when she came back, he was lying on the sofa, not asleep, but dead. She felt no pulse.

Reuben went to her team a few hours later, to get an update on what they found. The forensics team proved utterly useless by not picking up anything at all, her colleague Zack told her that Sara was telling the truth about everything, but the scientists found something interesting when they stripped the body, they found something off about its structure, they did an autopsy and everything on the inside was ruptured. Reuben then pondered. Who could have done this and how?

At the end of the day, Reuben walked home pondering about this. What if I cannot solve this case? It would not look good on me but who could blame me? Reuben gritted her teeth and contracted her stomach in frustration at the thought of the killer getting away like that. Because of that, pain flared in her stomach. She always felt pain when taking down criminals, they never handed themselves in without a fight but this was substantially worse. At first, it hurt to grit her teeth and contract her stomach, then it hurt to breathe, then to move, and then it hurt just as bad when she did nothing. Then she realised, her insides were getting ruptured! But where was the killer? What is doing this to me? Her breath laboured and she started to crawl. Then, to add to the pain, her brain felt like it was on fire. Reuben's hands went to her head. She was dying and nobody was around to take her to a hospital. Then she collapsed and was lying down on the hard ground. She screwed her eyes shut because of the pain but before she did, a lady out of the darkness came up to her and examined her. Reuben could not speak without having to endure a lot of pain everywhere and she did not see what the mysterious lady did and everything went black.

Reuben woke up to find herself on the floor in a place with advanced tech and lots of weaponry. She was suddenly moving from side to side. She was moving. It felt like she was in the air, on a plane. She wondered. How did I get here? She could not remember what happened, the last thing she remembered was walking home and then she remembered... she was dying. But she could not remember how she was saved. Or was she even saved? Was this heaven with God making it look better?

'You're awake! You're lucky I saved you before you died!' a voice said.

"You saved me? What..who are you? " Reuben replied tiredly.

"Think of me as your saviour for now. I believe I know who the killer is."

"You know who the killer is and you have not said this to any of the police. Why me?"

"The police will not believe me likewise if I told them, but since you almost died, you'd probably believe me. Besides the police are useless in most movies and TV series."

"Where am I?"

"Welcome to the Sonic Jet. The capabilities of this plane are irrelevant so I'll just cut to the chase. I need you to help me find the killer, I did save you and don't you want to take down the killer?"

"Woah...slow down, you want me to help you? I don't even know your name."

"In time I will reveal myself. For now, call me the Cavalry. Now showtime."

The Cavalry created a colourful hole, but it was not a hole, it was a portal.

"Go through," she said.

Reuben did that and she found herself in a colourful universe, colourful, as in everything seemed happy and vibrant and colourful, she never saw places like these, all the crime scenes and the places they were at felt very black and white to Reuben.

"What is this place?"Reuben asked.

"The spirit world." the Cavalry replied.

"Spirits? They're real?"

"What do you think those mythological creatures are?"

"Why is this place so colourful?"

"This place contains the essence of life, colores vitae."

"Colours of life."

"The spirit world has existed since the beginning of time as well as the spirits and they have helped with the creation of everything. The colours here indicate something, the green indicates the natural landscape and also the beauty of everything. But there are also the colours of death and destruction. In the spirit world, there are colores vitae...et Mortis."

"So you think a rogue spirit is behind this."

"Yes, the lack of evidence indicates so. Come on now, we have a mystery to solve."

"Wait two things. How did you open that gate to this place?"

"I existed here and some people from Earth became friends with me and life moved on."

"Where are they now?"

"They are alive but I have not heard from them in a while. That's why I enlisted you to help me and also I knew that you were innocent and did not want to see you with some enemies of mine. So what was the second thing?"

"Your name."

She smiled."Ophelia.Ophelia Johnson.AKA Colour Light."