FFM 2023 1: A Dice-y Message

No prompts used, although the dice were inspired by the black light reactive dice set I bought earlier this week.

Challenge: The story must begin with a mysterious message and you must include a character who is very close to the message receiver who will be a part of solving the message’s mystery. Optionally, include an item for the message receiver to be used with the message.

---

Come to the lorn house

Cast these dice into the darkness

And shine them with the light the color of which

Is the opposite to white

???

Profit

“Well, Tricks,” Jack set the paper down, “this sure looks like some edgy teenager wrote it, ran out of fanciness and decided to flip to the opposite end and refer to a meme.”

“Heh, I could tell that much.” I leaned forward in my rocking chair. “What do you make of the dice?”

Jack turned the container of dice around in his hand. “Do you even have anything to show black light at them?”

I pointed my thumb to my desk. “I dug up an old spy pen thingy. It lights up and I’m pretty sure the dice reacted to them.” Jack was looking skeptical. “Look, Jackie, what I wanna know is if we should go to this “lorn house” AKA the so-called haunted house or investigate who bought these dice.”

“First of all, ‘we’?” Jack shook his head. “Second of all, third option: ‘we’ don’t have to do anything. ‘We’ could just ignore this letter.”

I laughed. “But where’s the fun in that? Aren’t you curious at all? Someone’s cringe enough to write something like this and dedicated enough to get a set of dice for it and stuff it into someone’s mailbox. This is a mystery begging to be solved!”

Jack looked at the paper again, sighing. “I can’t decide if it’s so cringe that I don’t want to find out who’s behind it or if I’m just curious enough to look into this.”

“You could uncringe them.” I grinned. “C’mon, you know you like sounding smart and educative. Come along already.”

Jack considered long enough for grandma to call us down for dinner. “Fine. When are we going?”

Score! “After dinner.”

“Got it.”

---

“And now to the evening’s news. The Dice Murderer has claimed yet another victim,” the newscaster said.

Jack choked on his potatoes.

“Hm?” I looked at the radio. “What wasf thatf?”

“Haven’t you heard?” Grandma asked. I shook my head. “The Dice Murderer has been going around for the last couple of months. Apparently, they send their victims a set of dice and a riddle-like letter, luring them to a place where they then are killed and left there for someone to find.”

Jack and I looked at each other.

“What’s wrong?” Grandma looked between us until she started frowning. “…Please don’t tell me one of you has gotten one of those packages.”

I was suddenly feeling very, very sick. “Um…”

“Grandaunt, I think your radio just saved our lives,” Jack blurted. “We had no idea…”

Grandma stood up. “Show me the package.”

---

“Today, we have some big news,” the newscaster whose tinny voice had saved Jack and me yesterday. “A suspect for the Dice Murderer case has been arrested. According to the police, a package matching the description of the previous Dice Murderer packages was submitted to them yesterday evening, leading to a police operation where an armed suspect was found at a potential would-be murder site. We await for further information…”

“Holy. Shit,” I murmured, leaning my head on my arms.

“Language, Tricks,” Grandma said over the sound of clinking dishes.

“Grandma, Jackie and I almost got murdered. I think this calls for a swearword…” I shook my head, staring at the radio. “I’ll never insult this thing ever again… Thank you.”

“I’m glad you’re safe.” Grandma paused. “…Let this be a lesson in caution, you hear? I don’t want you to die too.”

“I know. Thank you.” I closed my eyes. “Holy shit…”