Into The Rabbit Hole

**Into The Rabbit Hole** is a case featured in *Criminal Case*. It takes place in *The Hunt For Orion* chapter of Graecita.

## Plot

**You are now experiencing the story in third-person view**

In the center of the ocean, a ship is sailing taking a prisoner abroad, a young woman by the name of Gisele Najm. Gisele is seen alone in her cell when suddenly a man came approaching her with a tray of chicken and wine. The man was Vicci Soprano who offered the tray to Gisele, who stubbornly refused to take anything from him but when Vicci was going to take the tray back to the kitchen, Gisele agreed to take the food and Vicci began watching her as she ate. Feeling uncomfortable, Gisele questioned him on why he’s staring at her where Vicci told her that he’s guarding her to make sure that she returns the utensils once she’s done eating so she doesn’t try to pick the lock of her cell with them. Gisele rolled her eyes before she continued eating and then found herself staring at the scar on Vicci’s face and catching him by surprise, she asked him where he got it from. Vicci stuttered but then explained that he is a soldier and and she shouldn’t expect people of his profession to return from a battle with no scratches but Gisele didn’t buy this as she was a member of Graecita before it even became the city, knew all the men who went to battle and did not recognize Vicci from the “good old days”. Seeing there’s no point in fooling Gisele, Vicci asked Gisele if she heard of the Roman Empire, making her laugh as everyone from Graecita knows about it and its history but she was shocked when Vicci asked her if she ever thought that maybe the empire still existed. Gisele looked warily at Vicci and asked him who he was, where Vicci revealed that his real name is Victorinus Spurinna, a slave of the Roman Empire and the scar on his face is from his battles in the arena. Gisele started asking him questions like how did he became a slave, where is the empire located and how did he end up in Graecita, questions that Vicci answered but when she asked if they’re taking her there, Vicci laughed and told her that only 3 people know about the empire, her being the third and that they are following Kaleb’s commands and leaving her in the first deserted island they’ll find. While the two are talking, Vicci heard shouting from upstairs and he rushed to see what’s going on, surprised to see that the ship was invaded by pirates. Vicci immediately drew his sword to fight, but he and his fellow soldiers were outnumbered and pirates everywhere surrounded them, making them their prisoners. Suddenly an old female pirate came out, Ann Bonny and she introduced herself to the young soldiers, asking them for their treasures. The soldiers denied carrying anything of worth in the ship but the pirate captain did not believe them and ordered her men to loot the ship. While they are looting, a pirate went down the prisoners’ deck and there he saw Gisele, half her face covered with hair. Gisele used what’s left of her beauty to seduce the pirate into unlocking her cell and the moment the pirate opened the door, she showed her true face, terrified the pirate and she pushed him into the cell before locking him up. Gisele was now free and she took advantage of her freedom to sneak through the ship and went into one of the lifeboats. Captain Bonny noticed her and she called for her pirates to capture the young woman, but it was too late, Gisele threw the boat into the sea and jumped into it before paddling away.

Meanwhile at Southern France, the crew of *Hamilton Laurent’s Revenge* are hiking the countryside with Natalie and Bambi the stag as their guides. The stag suddenly stopped and started sniffing a golden trail he spotted. The crew all looked at the trail, wondering where it came from, but Madelina got excited and started singing a song from *The Wizard of Oz*. Natalie had no idea where the song was from or the context, but she found it catchy and she sang along Madelina, both to Bambi’s side who started dancing as he led the way. Mia was getting irritated and she told Madelina to “STFU”, which pissed off the stag who raised one of his bag legs and started pissing all over Mia, making the whole squad laugh as she stood there in shock and disgust. As they are laughing, their way was suddenly blocked by a herd of animals running from the right and out of concern, Ophelia asked what they are running from where Natalie told her that there must be hunters around there and there may have been a death at the forest. The crew thought about that and wondered if the “hunters” may be “huntresses” and Artemis may be around and so to check, Mia and Ophelia headed to the opposite direction of the animals to see what’s going on. In no time, the girls saw what the animals were running from and it wasn’t hunters but the decapitated body of a young girl next to a rabbit hole.

**You are now playing as Mia Loukas**

After Ophelia and Mia found the body, the rest of the crew joined them out of curiosity and they were all horrified at seeing the little girl’s corpse, remembering Gisele and the deaths of Faith Baros, Lizzie Park and The Musa Twins. Wondering what could possibly lead someone to kill that poor little girl, the crew decided to find her murderer and during their investigation they learned that Dionysus has thrown a picnic nearby, inviting his closest friends with him and the crew decided to join the picnic where Madelina managed to woo Dionysus with her charms and spirit. There, the crew met the Phrygian King Midas and his son, Lityerses and it didn’t take long for Ophelia and Mia to learn the victim’s identity: Zoe of Phrygia, the daughter of King Midas. After suspecting Dionysus and the victim’s family, Ophelia and Mia started discussing the murder until they heard the sound of fighting coming from the woods.

Out of curiosity, Ophelia and Mia went to see the fight which was between a satyr and a group of maenads, where the satyr was waving a bloody hoe at the beasts yo shoo them away. After the maenads had left the scene, the two girls confronted the satyr, Rolland Overton over Zoe’s murder, but he claimed that he had no idea what the two women are talking about and that he found the hoe at a nearby marigold field and decided to pick it up as a tool to defend himself with. Ophelia and Mia decided to search that marigold field the satyr was talking about and found another suspect: Drusilla, whom they recognized as one of the maenads that tried to attack Rolland back at the woods. During the investigation, the duo learned that Midas was planning to offer his daughter’s virginity to Apollo once she turns 13 to get his real ears back (making Ophelia feel disgusted) and that Dionysus gave Zoe a bottle of wine to drink from, not dawning on him that she is too young for that beverage, causing a fight between her and the girl’s father. Suddenly the crew heard a scream from the forest and when Mia and Ophelia rushed to see what’s going on, they saw Drusilla and her fellow maenads eating the dismembered parts of a hiker they just killed.

Ophelia went green from the sight she saw and the girls immediately took the maenads to Dionysus who scolded them for “misbehaving”. Midas then confronted the beasts, accusing them of murdering his daughter, but Drusilla laughed at the idea, denying that she and her friends had killed Zoe, but wouldn’t mind dining on some “fresh meat”. After the maenads were confronted, Ophelia and Mia returned to the investigation where they discovered that Lityerses envied the love his father had for his sister over him and that Zoe ruined Rolland’s lunch after she freed a rabbit from a trap Rolland had set up. After collecting enough evidence, Ophelia and Mia went to confront the victim’s brother, Lityerses for the murder.

Lityerses acted disgusted by Ophelia and Mia’s accusations as he would never hurt his own flesh and blood no matter how envious he felt, but after being put on pressure, he cracked up, claiming the murder an accident. Ophelia asked him how could he possibly decapitate his sister by “accident”, where Lityerses revealed that she wasn’t the target. Lityerses explained that his father brought no gift to honor Dionysus for the picnic and so when spotted a large white hare, he told him to hunt it believing that Dionysus would be honored to he offered such a beautiful beast. Lityerses did what his father told him and went to chase the hare but found difficulty in killing it. What Lityerses didn’t know is that his sister didn’t stay and the picnic and went to the forest and was playing with the same hare he was hunting. Lityerses then saw the hare near a rabbit hole and slowly approached it and swung his hoe to kill it. But Zoe was watching Lityerses and wanting to save the hare, she stood in front of her brother hoping that she’d stop him from swinging his tool but instead Lityerses ended up hitting her with his gardening tool, accidentally chopping off her dead. When Lityerses realized what he had done, he freaked out and escaped the scene and not wanting anyone to know what he did, he threw his hoe into a field of marigolds hoping no one would find it and trace it to him. Ophelia and Mia felt pity for Lityerses as he didn’t mean to kill his sister, but regardless they took him to his father for judgement. Lityerses started crying, begging his father to forgive him and at first it seemed like Midas was actually going to pardon him but instead he took off his glove and smacked his son and with a single touch, Lityerses turned to gold. After Lityerses was frozen, Midas decided to make the golden statue his gift for Dionysus.

Once the murder was solved, the team decided to take a little break before going back to searching for Artemis. Mia and Ophelia went to grab food from the picnic buffet, and soon Zachary tagged along. Zachary told the girls that Natalie have requested to talk with them but before Mia and Ophelia could go, a distressed Chet Peretz came to them asking for their help. Zachary calmed the boy down and told him that he and Mia will be there for him.

Concerned, Zachary questioned Chet on what was his problem, who started stuttering and pointed at a golden statue of Madelina Alonzo. It first, Zachary was impressed by the “work of art”, until it dawned on him the status wasn’t modeled after Madelina, it IS Madelina. Zachary asked how did that happen, where Midas stepped in and admitted that it was his fault and that he offered Madelina a drink without wearing his gloves and accidently turned her to gold. Zachary didn’t know what to do and then he remembered the myth of Midas’ touch and how he accidentally turned his own daughter to gold and asked Midas what he had to do to bring her back to life. Midas explained that in order to revert her back to flesh, Midas had to wash Zoe with water from River Pactolus which is located at Turkey, an area far from where they are right now. But Midas assured them that before he and his family went on a voyage to attend Dionysus’ party, he had told his son to fill a canteen with water from the river in case any “accidents” occur. Zachary asked Midas for the canteen, but Midas told him that it was with Lityerses and he has no idea where the boy left it. Zachary and Mia decided to search the marigold field for the canteen, but they found it lay on the side, open and barely any water left inside. Zachary then spotted a broken bucket and had any idea, asking Mia to fix the bucket. Once she restored the bucket, Zachary poured the water left from the canteen into his hand and started meditating, making the water glow and soon droplets of water started levitated from the field and Zachary poured it into the bucket. After getting the water, the duo rushed back to the picnic where Chase offered to splash the water bucket at Madelina, making her turn back to her normal herself. At first Madelina didn’t react, but when she noticed that both her dress and hair were wet, she freaked out. Realizing that Chase was holding a bucket, she went red and started chasing him with her wand.

Wondering what Natalie would want from them, Ophelia and Mia went to her in order to ask her. Natalie explained that the reason she requested to speak with them is because Bambi alarmed her that he senses two huntresses around the wood and quickly thought to inform them, hoping that they’ll find the two huntresses and they may lead them to their mistress, Artemis. At hearing that, Ophelia asked where Bambi could sense the huntresses where Natalie patted him and asked him to lead Ophelia and Mia to the way. Bambi was hesitant as he disliked Mia and didn’t trust Ophelia completely but when Natalie assured him that they’re harmless and he led the two girls through the forest, at the region they had found Zoe of Phrygia’s dead body. Ophelia and Mia couldn’t spot the huntresses so they started investigating and they found beneath a pile of acorn a bow of French design. The girls assumed it must belong to one of the huntresses and were going to use it to track her down, but suddenly they heard someone approaching and they quickly went to hide. Hiding behind the trees, they saw two huntresses: An Chinese woman approaching the age of 30 dressed as a Song dynasty archer and she was scolding a dark-skinned girl, still in her teenage years for losing her bow. The two huntresses were sent to look for a lost stag and knowing that by being caught with Bambi they could get in trouble, Ophelia and Mia were about to walk away but Bambi rushed immediately toward the huntresses, blowing Ophelia and Mia’s cover. The Chinese woman immediately raised her bow at the girls, who immediately denied trying to kidnap the stag and that they just wanted its help to look for Artemis. The Chinese woman wasn’t satisfied with their excuse and questioned them on why they are looking for her mistress, where the two girls revealed they have a message for her and need to discuss a deal with her. The Chinese huntress was going to refuse help for the two, but teenage girl agreed to take the girls and their friends to her mistress, and convinced Wu Ling (the Chinese woman) to participate too. Ling sighed, knowing Artemis won’t like what they were about to do but agreed to lead Ophelia and Mia to them, asking the duo to take her to their group.

**You are now experiencing the story in third-person view**

After Madelina was saved and the huntresses were found, Mia and Ophelia took Ling and her young companion to meet the rest of the team and was pissed to see that the team consists of around 5 members of the male species but agreed to take them to Artemis anyway. Before the group started the hike, they thanked Natalie for her services and allowed her to go before following Ling to the huntress’ hideout. Ling was mistrustful of the team and demanded that they keep their distance from her while walking and the team started to fuss about her attitude. The teenage huntress heard the team and apologized on behalf of Ling, explaining that the huntress is seldom on a good mood and that they shouldn’t take her judgement to heart as she trusted no one, even her fellow hunters. Ophelia assured her that its okay and asked the girl for name, in which she identified herself as Renée Diouf but they could call her Ginny (Renée’s name is French and is pronounced Gheńee so Ginny’s close) if they’d like to and that she’s joined the hunt about 5 years ago at the age of 16. Ophelia then introduced herself to Ginny and asked her what the huntresses are doing her but before Ginny could answer, Ling sent her a signal warning her not to tell them.

## Summary

* **Zoe of Phrygia** (Found decapitated next to a rabbit hole)

## Suspects

DionysusKing MidasLityerses of PhrygiaDrusillaRolland Overton
## Quasi-suspects

Chet PeretzMadelina AlonzoNatalieWu Ling & Renée
## Killer’s Profile

* The killer eats pomegranates.

* The killer uses mushrooms.

* The killer is a Sagittarius.

* The killer has blond hair.

* The killer wears a leopard pattern.