Once and for All

A huge mansion doomed up in the distance, the black walls even darker than the cloudy grey sky. Two figures approached, their size remarkably small in the shadow of the mansion. The sound of gravel crunching under their feet was the only sound breaking the silence at this unholy hour. Just before opening the gate the two men looked up at the sky. The clouds above their head broke open, letting the full moon shine her bright light on their shadowy faces.
The taller man, who was named Arthur Thorne, had wavy brown hair reaching below his ears and a friendly looking appearance, unless you looked him in the eyes. Behind his glasses his eyes were cold and seemingly dead.
Michel Ridge on the other hand had short, black hair, almost as if everything had been shaven off. His round, broad shoulders gave him the appearance as the burlier of the two, but in contradiction to Arthur, Michel had very warm and friendly brown eyes.
Michel heaved a deep sigh while looking at his partner.
"Why of all people did it have to be you?" he asked irritated.
"I'm also really glad to work with you on this case, thank you very much," Arthur spoke with a crooked smile on his face.
Michel rolled with his eyes just before breaking the eye contact. He swallowed slowly while looking back at the looming house.
"Why do you think they chose us to work on this case? I mean, no offense, but your crooked character surely doesn't fit mine," Michel said thoughtfully.
He jumped when suddenly Arthur's pale looking hand shot to the handle of the gate.
"What? Want me to hold your hand or something? We are detectives, act like it, scaredy cat," Arthur said coldly. "Let's get this over with."
The gate swung open, making a terribly high, creaking noise, as if it hadn't been opened for decades. Crows suddenly flew out of the trees of the forest surrounding the mansion. The sounds they made were scratchy and sharp, causing Michel to cover his ears and close his brown eyes.
"Are you going to stand there all night?" Arthur asked mockingly after the sounds of the crows had died out.
Michel took his hands off his ears and opened his eyes. The moonlight made Arthur's glasses shine, making it impossible for Michel to look into his cold eyes.
"Well?" Arthur asked impatiently.

"I don't like this Arthur," Michel said while Arthur was looking closely at the dead woman laying on the ground.
Her skull had been cracked open with a heavy weapon, perhaps an axe. Insides of her head had been spilled out, making it look like a gory mess. The blood which had oozed from her head matched the colour of her red lips. Her wide open blue eyes reflected her last seconds of pure fear.
"Please, Michel, I'm trying to do my work here. I have no time to babysit you," Arthur mumbled irritated, not looking away from the corpse for a second.
"But Arthur, there is something here! I can feel it!" Michel hissed. "If we don't run we are going to die here too!"
Arthur took his eyes of the dead woman and looked Michel in the eyes. Michel was clearly scared to death. Arthur smiled by noticing how ironic it was that such a tough looking guy could be scared so easily.
"Calm down, will you? I don't know in what kind of ghost and monsters you believe, but I can assure you, those are only fairytales."
"I mean it Arthur! I swear I saw something just now!"
"Look, Michel. Apart from us two no one else entered this building after the murder. So, could you just calm down?"
"What if the murderer never left?"
It was then that both detectives noticed the silhouette in the doorway. The creature must have been enormous for his shadow took almost all the light in the room. The detectives' eyes were fixed on the man's face. Not because they could take up all the details, rather because they couldn't. His face was covered with a white mask, the left side stained with deep red splatters of blood. Arthur observed, while Michel stood there, stunned by the beast that was this man. Slowly he took a heavy step forward, the sound piercing through the heavy silence that had filled the room. A scrape was heard as he dragged a heavy object over the floor. In his hand, he held an axe, heavy and bloodied. It left deep scratches in the floor, and a trail of blood followed behind the man, footsteps where he had walked through the blood himself.
"God," Arthur breathed out. "Please have mercy..."