Ghosts of Wonderland

Christmas

Halo Thirteen: Christmas:

This day started with finding a body and ended with a hit-and-run accident.

The housekeeper was the one who made the call on Christmas morning. She wasn't supposed to be there. However, she got invited to come over via text. The message looked kind of weird. She tried to call but got no answer. The housekeeper knocked on the door. No answer.

"Kamiya-san? Kamiya-san?" she asked. No answer. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the key. The first thing she noticed was how cold the living room was. The housekeeper took a step back. Part of her wondered if she should call the police or not. She poked her head inside.

"Kamiya-san?" she asked. The housekeeper took off her boots and slowly walked inside. Right away, something didn't feel right. She made her way to the kitchen.

She let out a loud scream at what she saw.

The victim was a twenty-one-year-old woman. Her body sat at the head of the table. She had a green paper crown on her head. The woman was dressed up in festive red and green. Her dress looked like it was made of silk. Jewelry decorated her neck, wrists, fingers, and ear lobes. Her glasses were cracked. A golden fork was closed in her right hand. Her eyes were wide open. The look of terror was permanently etched on her face.

She wasn't the only body at the table.

The rest of the bodies sat at the chairs. Mother, father, younger brothers, and younger sister. All of them dressed up in the same festive red and green as the girl at the head of the table. Dad looked like Santa Claus. Mother looked like Mrs. Claus. The boys were dressed like elves. The little girl was a reindeer. They looked like they had been dead longer than the girl. The table was covered in food and plates. They were all posed in a disturbing image of a Christmas family dinner. Family photos were decorated around the room. All of happier times.

Nakamura winced as he took a step back.

"Damn," he muttered to himself. The CSIs got to work. Nakamura had his eyes on the girl at the head of the table. The victim's name was Kamiya Asuna. She had just graduated from Todai.

Or so her family believed.

"What's the deal here?" one of the CSIs asked. Nakamura rubbed his forehead.

"The housekeeper found the bodies this morning," he said. "It was supposed to be her day off. She said that she was invited over for Christmas breakfast." The CSI paused for a moment.

"You don't think—"

Nakamura quickly put up his hand. "We don't know that yet. We just have to follow the evidence."

"Yes sir," the CSI said. "But tell that you don't suspect..." Nakamura didn't answer. He turned back to the bodies at the table. The younger children were bagged up for processing. The detective shook his head. The CSI was right, but part of him hoped that this was different this time. He walked over to Asuna at the head of the table.

"What did you do to your family?" he asked. Asuna's corpse sat there and stared with empty eyes.

Christmas was supposed to be joyful today. But this is the Wasteland. And we can't have nice things in the Wasteland. This winter further stuck the knife into the city.

There was an art exhibit that opened yesterday. It was going to be open from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day. This wasn't an ordinary art exhibit either. Nothing sweet and Christmas-related here. Oh no! The theme was Seemingly Normal Photographs with Darker Back Stories. Some of the pictures were known by true crime junkies all over the world. Some not so much. They came from all over the world. The art curator told the stories behind each picture. Everyone gathered around in morbid curiosity.