I woke up at the sound of my phone's bizarre ringtone. Well, it's not really bizarre, in fact, it's one of my favourites. But unfortunately, it becomes when it is FREAKING 6:30 in the morning. I just went to bed after finishing my morning prayers when my phone which was ultimately beside my pillow rang so loudly that it struck directly towards my head and I feel like my head's going to burst for the sudden wake. Seriously, my ears are still ringing.

Letting out a big sigh, I turned over the phone to see who was this angel who broke my beauty sleep. And of course, it's none other than my super-talented, overly-annoying, nerdy-little-brain and stunningly-gorgeous-high-school-length-best-friend aka Alice. Her name is not really Alice, rather it's a nickname. Her original name is "Amanda Miller Grace". But she once said that this name was her grandmother's and she wanted her grandchild to bear her name. Alice liked it, but unfortunate for her, her parents didn't. Maybe they didn't really want to have an "Alice The Second" in their family, so they named her Amanda instead.

I, on the other hand, call her both, depending on my current mood. But I usually like to call her Alice as it is both a cute name and it commemorated her grandmother. Her mother says she looks just like her grandmother. The funny thing is, I can never understand the similarities between two faces unless they're completely a copy. Or, if someone confirms to me that they're similar, then I can identify the resemblance between them. Yeah I know, one of my inabilities as a well-known detective. But Alice is a pro on that. Honestly, I don't even know how she finds matches between two people's faces before we can even send the pictures to the lab to check! She's practically a mini computer in a human form.

I flipped my phone over to see that I got five missed-calls from Alice. It's strange... she never calls so many times unless it's something urgent or important, and usually that's not very often. The job of a detective here in Cannibaltown is not so busy or tough. Even though the name doesn't sound welcoming much, people here are very friendly and are of peace-loving nature. Crimes don't often occur around, except minor thefts and robberies. Sometimes maybe a missing report of a child lost in the Pleasure Park who just happened to had gone too far and out of their parents' eyesight. Sigh yeah, no big deal. And the urgency of Alice? Well, she might be going to a party tonight and she needs to buy a new dress to wear while she has a closet full of party-wears and other dresses. To be honest, I've never seen someone's closet so colourful yet still so obsessed with clothes. Well, at least it's not makeup, or it would've been hard for her to keep up with me. But even so, she wouldn't bug me this early in the morning. I quickly went to the bathroom and freshen myself up. I called her back as I went to the kitchen to make breakfast. She picked up on the first ring.

"Hey Sis, what's up so early today?" I asked, pouring milk in my bowl of chocolate cereal.

"Eiliyah!!! What took you so long??" She practically yelled which hurt my ears so badly.

"Geez, calm down. It's not even 8 o'clock. You might not sleep but there's a lot of people who need it. What happened?"

"You have to come to the office immediately," she said in an urgent and tense tone. I was slightly surprised, she doesn't sound this serious very often.

"Okay, I'm coming in 15 minutes, let me get ready first," I said.

"Good, hurry up, I'm waiting," she said and hung up.

I threw my phone on the bed and went to get dressed. After checking myself in the mirror once, I left my house and went off. The police station was not so far from where I lived, 15 minutes for a normal paced walk, 10 minutes if you walk faster. Even though I was praying to myself that this was not something ridiculous or stupid which Alice usually does, I had a feeling that it's not just a joke or prank. She seemed quite anxious when she was talking over the phone. Ah, shit, I left my phone, I thought to myself. I argued with myself for a minute if I should go back and bring my phone, but then decided to leave it. Alice might kill me if I am late again.

The weather today is very nice. The bright sun just starting to shine while cool breezes leaving chills throughout the entire body rapidly. Birds chirping loudly, people are starting to go out to work, shops are slowly opening. I love to enjoy these tiny little details every day on my way to the station. Cannibaltown is small, and not that many people bustling around. Almost everyone knows each other in their neighbourhood. It's usually a calm place, unless you hear people bickering sometimes over the tiniest things. But the best part is, no grudges. You won't find people beating or killing each other like some other places I hear often.

We have one "special" and extraordinary nature, habit, quality, whatever you say. That is, people here are overly obsessed with chocolates. Like, if we had a national food or something, it would definitely be chocolates. And why wouldn't it be? The chocolates produced here are heavenly. I admit myself, and I'm also one of those "obsessed with chocolate" peeps. Sometimes I wonder why this place is named Cannibaltown instead of something like, "Chocolate Land" or maybe "Choco Island". But it still fits in a way, each person here is a cannibal themselves, comparing their desire for chocolates. Chocolate is life here, except for those who come to just visit as tourists. But eventually, they also become chocoholic because of those mouth-watering flavours and fabulous designs of millions of chocolates. But, it has its demerits too of course. For our marvellous obsession on chocolates, most of our neighbouring counties and towns intentionally broke their economical relationship with us since our main economy is based on the exportation of chocolates. But I can assure you, we're not that helpless, yet, we are labelled as "Chocolate Freaks". Oh well, haters will always hate. I love my town and the fact of how peaceful it is.

I arrived at the station, completely out of breath, and quickly went to my office. Yes, I have my private office as the head detective of CPD. This was Alice's before, but I got promoted and she is now the sub-head of this department. Even though the Chief changed our positions, neither of us mind because when there's a case, it's always the two of us in charge. And sometimes, a close friend of mine who's now my colleague joins our little team. But the whole team thing happens very rarely, since it's not necessary in most of the cases.

The station seemed to be buzzing with people more than usual, I wondered why. I entered my office to see Alice already in there, pacing back and forth and thinking hard about something. I wasn't sure if I should disturb her in this situation so I just waited by the door. After sometimes, she finally looked up and yelled,

"FINALLY, Your Royal Highness decided to show up and see her subjects," she retorted.

"Oh, calm down, Alice. What is going on?" I asked her.

"Give me your phone," she ordered.

"I'm sorry, what??" I asked, suddenly regretting my decision to leave my phone in my house.

"Your phone... give it to me! Honestly, don't you just understand plain English?" She said impatiently, stretching one hand towards me.

"But-" I was trying to understand the situation if I should tell her or not.

"Ugh, damnit!" She huffed and came forward, starting to search all the pockets in my uniform.

"Alice wait, I didn't bring it, it's in my house," I tried to push her back.

"What?? You never go out without your phone and you left it today??? Great, just great! You did an awesome job Sis," she glared at me. Honestly, for a second, I thought if human eyes could burst out fire I'd be burned by Alice right now.

"But why do you need my phone? You can show me whatever it is in yours," I told her.

"Because... THE PICTURES ARE NOT LOADING ON MY PHONE DARN IT!" She started yelling again. I facepalmed myself and mentally noted to never ever leave for any place without my phone again.

"It's okay Alice, just tell me what's wrong," I persuaded her.

"Fine then, I'll just cut it short in one line. There's a chocolate thief downtown," she said casually.

"Great, another theft. What's so dramatic about that? Where was the commotion? We could do a quick search on what the thief took and then- wait what?? I snapped my head towards her.

"Yes you dumbhead, a chocolate thief," she emphasised this time. I was slightly offended by her calling me dumbhead and if the situation was different, I might've called her something back. But now's not the time and my brain was still digesting on what she just said.

"But... that's not- it's impossible, there must be a mistake somewhere," I tried to reason with her.

"Yes but no, it's not a mistake, and I checked all the details. It's completely intentional and well-planned. The owner of those chocolates is found dead in an alley nearby on his way back home after buying them. The box of the chocolates was found a little further away from where the murder happened. Several chocolates in it are missing," she said.

"So it's not only just a thief but also a killer?!" I exclaimed and she just nodded her head.

"No way, it can't be..." I thought to myself. Cannibaltown is a peaceful place, no one ever heard of kidnapping in decades, let alone murder. I admit, people quarrelled with each other often, especially on chocolates, but it wasn't anything too serious as in the end, they always somehow managed themselves. This was completely new. Who would want to ruin this peace?

I sat down on my rolling chair, brain streaming with hundreds of questions. Who could they be? And why would they do this? Why did they kill that person? And most importantly, what does it possibly have anything to do with chocolates??

Alright, yay! I finally finished the first chapter successfully Alhamdulillah. And it was quicker than I imagined. Guess my brain started to really work on this thing lol.

Now I know some of you might have questions. This chapter might look like it has no similarities with the first one. Like, the characters, incidents, place etc. Well, you're not quite wrong, I couldn't start following that because that was practically a middle or climax part of a story if I'm honest. And I want to continue this as an original story so I just started from zero. All the names, characters, plots I didn't even have any to start with, everything is going to be set in a decent way Inshaallah (I'll try my best), except the main theme :). So I still hope you like and enjoy it and if you don't, my deepest apologies. And I'm sorry I couldn't go with the "murdered after a week" theory, because it seemed illogical to me and I couldn't come up with a plot ;-;. Honestly, it was just a random idea my brain came up with at "that" time XD.

Now, for the formalities, *clears throat* Ahem, if you enjoyed the chapter please vote so I'll know and be happy that you enjoyed it :). Also, feel free to show your emotions through comments (I love reading those lol). Any kinds of suggestions or honest critiques are welcomed :) There's no fixed time to learn. And please, forgive any mistakes, I mean no offence to anyone.

Ba bye ya'll! Stay safe and take care. Lots of love,

~Ettila