Crystals

Thomas Redding, a middle-aged wealthy landowner disappears from his estate during a snowstorm. Two days later he is reported missing by a neighbor. During the search of the house the police finds clear signs of struggle and destruction in the house. Furniture and windows have been broken and several shots have been fired inside the house, but no weapon has been found. They also found something much, much stranger; several large crystal clusters vaguely humanoid and arachnid in shape.

Image credit

Mr. Redding has no enemies according to his relatives, friends and neighbors. In fact, he has a very good reputation and donates large amounts of money to the local university. Neither the neighbors, his friends or family know anything about the purpose of the crystals, no one has even seen them before.

Mr. Redding’s best friend Jonathan Dawson was the last person that saw Thomas before he disappeared. Jonathan had been invited to dinner, some whiskey and a few cigars three days before the storm. They had stayed up until midnight talking about old times before Mr. Dawson’s driver had driven him home. Mr. Redding seemed troubled by something and Jonathan was surprised by topic of the conversation since Thomas usually never talk about the past.

Possibilities

1 Thomas Redding is dead. Mr. Redding attempted to create life from a non-organic “primordial soup” he had created after reading the instructions how to from a book. It worked. Crystalloid life forms grew from the “soup” that he had in the basement. As time passed they grew more and more advanced... but also more and more aggressive. They scared him and soon he simply locked the basement door and tried to ignore them. But it was impossible, he could hear them move around down there. He sent down his housemaid downstairs to find out what was happening down there. The maid tried to flee when the creatures attacked her, but Redding had locked the door behind her. The creatures seemed to calm down for a while after that but soon they made sounds again. He figured that they must be hungry and feared for his life. After the dinner with Mr. Dawson he forced his cook, his driver and his butler down into the basement as well under gun threat. This time he watched as the creatures sucked his servants dry from fluids. The crystals they creatures were made of seemed to “infect” the bodies and they were soon transformed into human-shaped crystal clusters. The creatures grew larger and larger because of the fluids until they broke free and killed Thomas during the snowstorm. He shot a few of the smaller spider-like creatures but was eventually overwhelmed, devoured and crystallized. The gun became overgrown with crystals and remains in his hand.

2 Thomas Redding was murdered by his sister, Rebecca Harding and her husband Lars Harding hoping they would inherit Thomas’ fortune. Lars bought a stolen gun, shot Thomas, cleaned up and then dumped the body in an abandoned cabin in a nearby forest. Rebecca will try to plant a fake will in the estate she or someone else can “find” which will give her right to the money. But what no one knew was that Thomas was dying, he had a severe case of cancer. Only he and his doctor knew about it. He had invited his friend Jonathan over for dinner to tell him this, but he didn’t have the courage to do it. The crystals caused Thomas’ cancer. Thomas had recently bought these strange crystals from a friend. But neither of them knew that the crystals contains traces of uranium and is dangerously radioactive.

3 Thomas Redding was in deep debt. He had made bad bets with the wrong people and now that he couldn’t pay up they made an example out of him. They kidnapped him during the snowstorm and now they’re keeping him in a industrial warehouse where they occasionally torture him. But not too soon they will end his life unless someone finds him. The crystal clusters were merely works of art made by Thomas using crystal clusters glued together to form strange creatures and is a hobby that Thomas had taken up recently.

© Björn Hanson