The mansion looked lifeless and dreadful. There were no visible light sources behind the windows. Only the looming darkness could be seen within it.

It was strange Nanaha thought as she peered towards her home with her deep brown eyes. Her parents, her two brothers and her bullylike sister should have been home, not to mention Mister  Filbern should be staying at their mansion as well. And he was definitely not a man to let a family sleep in such silence, this early.

And it certainly couldn't be that there was a problem with the electricity. The capital was full of light and rays. Not to mention the mansion had its own electricity generator.  

She looked at the black clouds looming above her. The deep dark blue sky glittered through the holes in the clouds. The crescent moon occasionally revealed itself to illuminate the black roads with its cold grey tinge. The atmosphere felt a little...chilling, one would say.  

Nanaha opened the gates and slowly walked towards the mansion along the stone pavement. A stray cat was meowing around the house, looking for some sort of an unauthorized entrance into her home. As soon as it’s bright green eyes made contact with Nanaha’s it immediately sprinted and turned around the corner of the mansion and disappeared.  

When Nanaha arrived in front of the door she knocked it twice with her knuckles. But the butler or any person in general did not respond.   

 Something is wrong. Something is definitely not right  Nanaha thought.

She brought out a key from her cute kitty shaped handbag, placed it into the keyhole and turned it. The door gave out a crack and ominously opened up with a terrible creak. Pitch black void awaited her inside. The only light source was the lanterns outside that shined through the opened the door.

Nanaha entered and chanted:

“Soulorb”

A blue moon-like orb took a form behind her. It illuminated the area with its blue aura. Looking around her surroundings carefully Nanaha walked upstairs. The steps creaked and shrieked as she walked towards the abyss above. A sound of something falling echoed behind her.

She immediately pulled out her electrogun from her handbag and looked back, aiming the weapon towards the door. But there was no one there. Only thing that was crawling along the floor was the same brown cat. It meowed and looked at Nanaha with a bored expression.

“Silly little troublemaker” mumbled Nanaha to herself.

The cat meowed as if to understand her taunts. Nanaha stuck her tongue out towards the cat. And turned around towards the dark stairs. She ordered the blue sphere with her mind to go further and illuminate the ground above her. Nothing interesting was there.

The double-door was closed and the portrait of their family at the two sides of the door looked at her. One was the portrait of their family and another portrait of their deceased grandmother.

But Nanaha had to admit, their pictures really did look creepy in the darkness. Especially her old and ugly grandma’s.

Sorry, gramps but age really does make you look like a skeleton. You’ve always bragged about how the body may become old and the mind may become senile but the soul remains eternally pure and immortal. Can’t really see your soul that is behind your wrinkled face and your fallen teeth.

She continued to advance upstairs and looked around, then decided to go left towards the bedroom of her young brother. It was hard to imagine someone as big of a troublemaker such as him would be in bed this early. And even if he was in bed he would always end up playing those silly video games all night.

Mom would always whine and yell about how they never should have bought this big mansion.  It distanced the family and she would always have trouble cleaning up according to her. And pops would be like “You’ve made the decision my dear. There is saying ‘be careful what you wish for’. Jeez, those two would be on about every nonsense for hours. Yet they somehow always managed not to be too rude to one other.

Realizing that she should be more alert, Nanaha shook her head and advanced forward with her soulorb by her side. Walking through the narrow corridor she walked up to her brother’s bedroom door and stretched her arm to knock it. But a scent that was coming from the end of the corridor disturbed her.

The smell of burnt flesh and…blood. She turned her head towards the bad smell and took a few steps…until she was greeted with a man’s corpse. His clothes were burnt and bloodied. A giant hole had appeared in the man’s torso. The blood and burns on the man’s face made it hard to make out the man’s identity. But looking into the man’s friendly brown eyes made Nanaha’s doubts clear on who the man was.                                                

“Mister Filbern?”

She grabbed hold of the man’s two shoulders and shook him vigorously. The man’s eyes blankly looked at the floor. No sign of any lively movement. The body was merely jerking forward and backward from the pulling and pushing Nanaha was responsible of.

Tears started to form in her eyes. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

How could this be! What is mother and father doing? Sitting on their asses? Filbern is dead. The kind and sarcastic and stupidly pranky Filbern. Wait…

Realizing the deadly possibility, Nanaha sprang up and quickly pulled the door handle to her brother’s room. Entering the room she pressed a button on her left. The lights did not turn on. A blackout? Or someone must have cut the electricity.

But she did not have time to think about such stuff. Nanaha quickly ran towards her brother's bed. Her little brother Imano slept with a straight face. and  

“Imano, Imano wake up you stupid moron!” yelled Nanaha as she shook his body.

But her brother’s face remained peaceful and still, regardless of her violent shaking and verbal bashing. Out of frustration, she threw the blankets on top of him away and witnessed that there was a single giant hole in her brother’s chest. The blood that drained from the wound, tainted the bedsheets with dark red.

“N-no,no. Nooooo”

Nanaha stumbled and fell to the floor on her butt. She closed her mouth with her hands to avoid puking and closed her eyes.

This is a lie. This is a horrible dream. I can’t believe this. I refuse to.

She sat silently there and prayed. Prayed to a god, deity or whatever that had the power to reverse time, wake her up from this nightmare. She cried out loud and begged within her heart. But reopening her eyes, her brother’s bloody bed still reminded her of the grim reality.

She panicked and pranced around the room with her shivering legs while she pulled the hairs in her head maniacally. But soon a thought penetrated her mind.

Nanaha. You can’t act like this. You’re your father’s girl. A policewoman. You studied the principles now you gotta play the act.  

She looked at her brother’s peaceful expression one more time and slapped her face. At least his death seemed to have been fast and painless. That much she could be greaftul for. But the killer, the one who was responsible for all of this. Nanaha would not forgive.

With that thought in mind, Nanaha rushed out of the room, sprinted along the hallway with her soulorb at her side. She pulled out her phone from her pocket and pressed the emergency button on it.  It was an app installed specifically for the cops and their jobs.    

Let's just hope I don't need their assistance if I ever encounter who did this. thought Nanaha and stepped forward.  

Going past the staircase, she ran towards the right-wing. It was the place where Raaja, her big sister’s room, Ahura, her big brother’s room and her parent’s rooms belonged.