It was the next day when Josef got the knock on his door. He had just finished his lunch and was getting ready to relax when they came, Josef was mildly annoyed at the interruption, but that mood changed when he opened the door to see two police officers standing outside.
“Mr Josef Mongola?” One of them asked.
“Yes?”
“I’m DCI Gary Sullivan, this is my partner DI Abby Barker, do you mind if we come in.”
“Uh, sure yeah.”
The two officers stepped inside, Josef closed the door behind them and followed them through to the living room.
“So… I take it you’re not here with good news.”
Gary shook his head. “I’m afraid not Mr Mongola, there was an incident at your Family estate last night, and I regret to inform you that both your parents were murdered.”
Josef didn’t have to fake the shock on his face, he could guess that’s what Jonathan had planned, but hearing that he actually went through with it, that knocked him for a loop.
“That’s… fuck… Is, is my brother ok?”
Abby nodded. “He’s unharmed Mr Mongola, in fact he’s admitted to the murders himself.”
“John? He killed… Jesus I knew he had issues with our parents, hell we both did, but I never expected him to actually…”
“That’s actually what we wanted to talk to you about Mr Mongola.” Gary reached for his notepad in his coat pocket. “We understand you were with your brother last night before the murder, we were wondering if you could tell us if you noticed anything strange or unusual about his behaviour.”
“Not to my knowledge, we’d spent the last few days at our Uncle Herman’s farm clearing out a Fluffy herd and he seemed ok, even jovial at times. I drove him home after we were done, nothing gave me the idea that he would… oh god the gun.”
“What gun Mr Mongola.”
Josef took the opportunity to lie a little more, potentially save his brother from 1st degree murder. “We left one of the shotguns in the car and took it back with us, I didn’t feel comfortable with it in the boot, and I figured Jonathan would see Herman before me so I gave it to him to keep hold of. Christ if that’s what he used to…”
Abby reached out and put a comforting hand on Josef’s shoulder. “It’s ok Mr Mongola, it’s not your fault. Why don’t you tell us about your relationship with your parents, help us understand the family dynamic so we can see the bigger picture.”
Josef spent the next hour giving a shortened explanation of the Mongola history, embellishing some parts to make Jonathan look better, telling the brutal truth to ensure his parents came across as the monsters they were. Once Gary and Abby were satisfied they gave their thanks to Josef and left him alone.
“So what you think?” Abby asked Gary as they exited Josef’s building.
“I think it’s pretty clear, shithead parents push their son too far, he finally snaps. Honestly the guy must have the patience of a saint to last this long.”
“And the gun? Seems a bit convenient wouldn’t you say?”
“Ordinarily yes, but this Fluffy herd thing checks out, the universe was just having a laugh when it gave our man John a shotgun and two fucked up parents.”
“Crime of passion?”
“Almost certainly. Can’t say I blame him.”
Katherine came over the next day, the first time she and Josef had seen each other since they broke up, but she was the only friend he had that knew about Jonathan and his abusive parents. She hugged him as soon as she opened the door.
“I’m so sorry Joe.”
Josef laughed. “Why? Cause my parents are dead, or cause my brother killed them?”
Katherine let him go. “Both I guess. I’m not sure what to think, losing your parents sucks but then it was YOUR parents and I don’t…”
“Don’t worry about it Kat, I understand better than you think. Come on inside, take a seat.”
The two of them went through to the living room, Katherine took a look around the flat, the first time she’d been inside.
“Nice place.”
“It’s shit.”
Kat smirked, recognising Josef’s trademark cynicism. “I don’t want to pry, but do you know what happened? The news says that it was a John reaching breaking point but that doesn’t sound quite right, not from what I remember about him.”
“You’re right, for starters John reached breaking point years ago, and everything since then has been him hanging on by a thread. I knew he planned to kill mum and dad, he basically told me the night before without actually telling me so I could still have deniability. Past that, I’m not sure what was in his head, I’m not sure I really want to.”
“Well, I’m here if you need to talk, I can get some days off work if you need someone here.”
“Work? Aren’t you still at school?”
“It’s just part-time, I took up a placement with Frederick’s Farm in their maternity ward, seems to be going well so far.”
“Never took you for the mothering type.”
“Oh please, it’s just an excuse to kill smarty kids. Sorry, that feels in bad taste now.”
“Fuck it, I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”
Katherine smiled, happy she could be herself around Josef.
“Oh, before I forget, I got this letter for you just before you left. Someone didn’t realise you moved house.”
Katherine handed Josef the letter, he was about to toss it onto the table when he caught the hand-writing on the front. It looked a lot like Jonathan’s writing.
Curious, Josef opened the letter and began reading;
Joey,
If I’ve planned this right then you’ll get this after we’ve dealt with HAM’s feral herd. Hopefully we got the bastards good.
If you’re reading this then there’s a good chance I’ve killed mum and dad by now, I hope I got a chance to ease you into that but I’ve been thinking about this for years, and I’m using Herman’s herd as an excuse to have a gun on me.
If I haven’t told you already, I’ve moved back in to the Manor, and before you start going off about why I never asked to move in with you, I moved back in by design. I wanted to ensure that I had a reason for being in the house, a reason to finally snap and kill them both. Trust me when I say I’ve given this enough thought that if I’m lucky, I can make it seem like this wasn’t planned, I don’t expect you to help me, but anything you can do to push the cops in that direction would be appreciated.
I’m ok going to jail, even if they give me the full first-degree charge I think a part of me probably needs it. I’ve been dealing with my fucked-up head for so long that I need to give myself some conformity, or I might lose myself in the chaos. Not to sound overdramatic but I’ve flirted with suicide more than once in the last few years, and it’s starting to sound enticing.
But I want you to know that I’m not leaving my little brother high and dry, I’ve altered Dad’s will so that you get most of his fortune, I’ll give some of it to Uncle HAM but I’ve no use or want for his Nazi gold and I know you could do some good with it. Whether you buy a house, give it to charity or blow it all on hookers, at least it’ll be in better hands than Fitz’s.
Take care of yourself Joey, after what we’ve gone through, at least one of us gets a happy ending.
John
Katherine watched as Josef’s eye slowly got wider and wider as he read the letter.
“What is it?” She asked him.
Josef looked up, a smile growing on his face.
“I think I’m about to be very rich.”
The Smarty unicorn pushed through the tall brown grass, his blue and red striped coat made it easier for his herd to follow him, they were a small herd, only him, his two toughies and three mares, two of which were in various stages of pregnancy, but he was convinced that it could grow to be the greatest herd ever.
He’d found a great nest earlier hidden away in the tree-place, but the mares refused to stay there because of the many dead Fluffy bodies and the stench of burnt food surrounding the place, so Smarty had pushed his herd onward, hoping to find something through the brown grass.
Eventually they came across another body, a green monster Fluffy with one eye, he was clearly dead with everything from his waist down ripped to shreds and soaked with boo-boo juice, but that didn’t stop one of the soon-mummahs from crying out.
“EEK! MUNSTAH!”
The cry of monster set off the other herd members until Smarty stepped up and kicked the dead Fluffy in the face.
“Dummeh mawe, munstah gu foweba sweepies. Wun-see-pwace munstah am dummeh, nu pwotect sewf, Smawty pwotect hewd fwom weal munstahs, nu dummeh ded wuns.”
The small herd calmed down, realising that the pointy-wingie monster was really dead, they followed their Smarty onwards to the end of the brown grass, where they started to see something coming into view.
A human house.
Unaware of the incoming herd, Hickory climbed out of the doggy door that Herman had installed and took a deep breath of the fresh country air. He strength had returned to him, he could no longer taste poopies in his mouth, and best of all, his wonderful special-friend Cinnamon was carrying his tummy-babies and his new daddeh said that so long as Hickory and Cinnamon were ok letting them go to good homes, they would be able to raise all their foals until they were old enough to eat nummies.
Hickory walked out onto the porch, finding Cinnamon resting at the top of the steps watching Pamela chase a wingie-buggie-friend. He lay down next to her and nuzzled against her cheek, hearing her coo at his touch.
“Hmm, wub speciaw-fwiend. Gun be bestesh daddeh eba.”
“Hik-o-ree su pwoud of soon-mummah, wub tummeh-babbehs su mush.”
The two parents lay next to each other and watched their daughter play, the nightmare of Alpha was behind them, they were safe.
That is until the brown grass parted and the herd popped out, seeing the blue and red unicorn made Pamela jump and run back to her parents, cowering behind their legs. Smarty saw the family and grunted.
“Dis am Smawty wand nyo, dummeh poopies gib nummies an enfies ow gu foweba sweepies.”
The family had prepared for this, Daddeh Herman had ran them through test runs of what to do if a herd turned up. They went inside, the doggy-door opened with magic thanks to their collars which wouldn’t let any feral Fluffies inside, Hickory let Herman know about the herd, and all three retreated to their safe-room until Herman gave the all-clear.
The Smarty was furious, how dare three poopie Fluffies ignore him, this was HIS land, he claimed it. He started taking a step toward the house when he heard something, a buzzing noise getting louder, he looked in the sky and saw the strangest thing.
It looked almost like a wingie-munstah, escape it’s wings weren’t moving and it was buzzing like a buggie-friend. Smarty could see the nu-wingie-munstah getting closer, carrying a red box-thing under its stomach. Eventually it stopped moving right above the Smarty’s head.
“Hmmph, dummeh buzzie munstah gu way, dis am Smawty wand nyo an…”
From inside his house, Herman flicked the release switch on the drone controls and dropped the brick right onto the Smarty’s head, killing him instantly. The members of his herd all ran off in different directions as they were sprayed with the blood and brain matter of their former leader, none of them had any idea where to go, they just ran through the tall brown grass, crying and shitting themselves as they went.
Herman was sure he heard one of the mares cry out ‘Big poopies’ as she went into premature labour.
Chuckling to himself, Herman stood up and went to find his Fluffy family, all three of them were cuddled together in their safe-room, he smiled at the sight.
“It’s ok guys, they’re gone now. The mean Smarty went forever sleepies, I’m just gonna deal with his body, you three stay here for the moment.”
Hickory nodded. “Daddeh need hewp?”
“Thanks bud but no, I’ll just be a moment. But for being so smart and so brave, I’ll cook us all something special for dinner tonight.”
Herman left the family to cheer about special nummies as he went outside to deal with Smarty’s corpse. It wasn’t the first, it wouldn’t be the last, but Herman would protect his new Fluffy friends with everything he had.
Plus even he had to admit, he was getting the hang of this drone malarkey.
Josef stayed quiet as the estate agent led him through the house, he could tell that the agent was nervous and keeping quiet just made the poor guy even more anxious.
“This is… uh, one of our more modern homes, it has two bedrooms, a washroom downstairs and an en-suite upstairs, as well as a state of the art kitchen and a garden upwards of 650 square feet. SORRY, sorry, 750 square feet, my apologies Mr Mongola.”
Josef didn’t even look at the estate agent, his focus was still on the house itself.
The agent cleared his throat and continued. “Built for the discerning gentleman such as yourself, you will have complete and utt… utter privacy in this part of the city. The fences in your garden are six-feet tall to keep out unwanted guests, and you could throw a stone your nearest neighbour and still come nowhere close to hitting them.”
The agent laughed at his own joke but stopped when he saw Josef wasn’t laughing with him, recovering quickly the agent led Josef through to the kitchen, only for Josef to stop when he saw a door just under the stairs.
“I take it that’s the basement.”
The agent’s eyes suddenly flared in alarm. “Ex… excuse me?”
“The basement? I take it that’s the door to it? Your site said this place had a basement, I’d like to see it please.”
“Um I’m sorry Mr Mongola but but but the do… the door is locked and I… I can’t open it without…”
Josef smirked at the nervous young man. “Your boss told you not to let me into the basement didn’t he?”
The agent breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, I’m very sorry Mr Mongola, but the truth is, it’s not a very nice basement, despite all our best efforts we can’t get rid of the dank smell or fix the dull lighting. I know I’m not suppose to tell you these things but this is the most expensive house I’ve ever been put in charge of and my boss says I have to sell it no matter what, but I’m not sure how to distract the customer well enough yet.”
“Ok well how about I make you a deal, you show me the basement now, and I promise I won’t let it affect my decision on whether or not to buy this place.”
“Well…ok, I don’t see how that could hurt. Just so long as you don’t tell my boss I let you in here.”
“Mum’s the word.”
The agent nodded and fished a set of keys out of his pocket, unlocking the basement door and letting Josef climbed down the stairs.
True to his word, the basement with damp, dark and dank, the fluorescent lighbulbs let off very little light and actively hurt your eyes trying to see anything, the only window was stuck in the top corner of the room, tiny and narrow to let in very little sunlight, the whole place had a cold humidity to the place which made the desks and worktables across the surprisingly many different rooms all feel cold and wet to the touch.
And Josef loved it, he already saw a Fluffy tied to the desk as he sliced into its belly.
“This is it Mr Mongola, like I said our guys have tried their best but I don’t think there’s any saving this room. I swear the rest of the house is fantastic and if you just follow me upstairs…”
“No need, I’ve decided. I’ll take it.”
“You… you will?”
“Yeah, this place has everything I need, I’ll take it.”
“That’s great to hear Mr Mongola, but there are other buyers looking at this property and we still need to go through the proper channels of home ownership and insurances and billing amounts and…”
“Oh we shouldn’t have to worry about that.”
Josef reached into his coat pocket, pausing for a second when he felt his finger brush against Rolfy’s Letter, and pulled out a chequebook and a pen, he quickly filled out the first cheque and handed it to the agent. His eyes nearly bugged out at the amount Josef had written down.
“Take that to your boss, tell him I’m good for the money and if he can fast-track this purchase to the end of the month, I’ll add in another bonus for the trouble.”
“This is… I mean… yes, absolutely Mr Mongola, I’ll do that right away.”
The agent shot his hand out to shake Josef’s, not seeing the cruel grin growing on his face.
“It’s doctor actually. Dr Josef Mongola. And it’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”
That is the end of Hunting Wabbits and the end of this two-part prequel series on Josef’s origins.
We haven’t seen the last of Jonathan yet, I’ve no immediate plans with him at the moment but I do want him to come back at some point. Same with Herman, I’ve left a slight door open for him so if people do want him to come back, I can pick up a couple ideas. Nothing concrete yet, so Herman won’t be a priority, but I’ve got the start of something.
Next up I’ll be returning to Carter’s Creature Comforts, I’ve decided to do something different than I initially planned which is why I focussed on these two prequels first while I fixed out the plans for Carter’s storyline and the series after that. Can’t reveal too much on that just yet, but it’s gonna be an interesting turn for the Mongola saga and I hope you all enjoy it.
