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ARTHUR AND THE RING OF MURDERS

Book One: Cheers and Smiles.

Synopsis

Copper Stone Town is a small thriving industrial town built on coal, smoke, and silence. Old abandoned mines surround it like scars, and beneath its steady rhythm lies a rule everyone obeys without question: sorcery is forbidden. No magic. No rituals. No exceptions.

Arthur lives here quietly, the local town's only dentist burdened by grief and routine. Once engaged to the woman he loved, Fiona, his life fractured the night he found her murdered, the night he planned to propose. The image never leaves him.

It returns in dreams that wake him in cold sweat, reminding him that death never truly lets go. He now lives with his silent, wheelchair-bound mother, a woman who watches more than she speaks, and carries a weight Arthur does not yet understand.




Arthur despises killers. To him, murder is a line that cannot be crossed. That belief begins to crack the night Cold stone’s most notorious serial killer The Walking Man—one Arthur has been tracking—is found dead before justice can reach him. The killing is brutal, precise, and wrong. Someone else is now hunting in the town.

But Arthur is no ordinary dentist, he has a secret , one he himself has not fully understood.



Soon, bodies begin to appear.

People vanish without warning. The murders follow no logic Arthur understands, yet one symbol repeats itself in whispers and fear: a smiling mask.

The town names the killer The Smile.

Arthur’s investigation alongside the police draws him toward the Liche family, an influential and strangely untouchable household that has recently settled near copper stone. They are polite, wealthy, and impossibly private. Edward Liche, the eldest son, becomes Arthur’s prime suspect—a man whose presence feels wrong even when his actions appear clean as he vyes for a spot in the towns council, a heart throb of all women. The family’s youngest daughter, Lyna, is newly engaged to the mayor’s son, edward, arthur's best friend. A young police officer.
The relationship feels forced, unnatural, and unsettling.

As Arthur digs deeper, the town begins to resist him. Records vanish. Stories contradict themselves. Every village tied to the Liche family carries a history of unexplained mysteries and deaths.

But nothing prepares Arthur for the deadly secrets he is about to uncover.

Chapter One



The night in Copper Stone carried the smell of coal smoke and wet stone.

Fog drifted lazily through the narrow streets while the town’s factory chimneys breathed dark clouds into the sky like giant sleeping beasts. Dim lanterns hung beside old brick buildings, their weak amber glow trembling against the mist.

Two men staggered down the cobbled road.

Hill and Billy.

Old coal miners.

Old drunks.

Old fools.

Their heavy boots scraped against the stones as they wobbled shoulder to shoulder, bottles hanging loosely from their hands. Their clothes were blackened with coal dust that never truly washed away, and their laughter echoed far louder than the sleeping town deserved.

Billy sang first, his voice rough and broken.

“WHEN I WAS YOUNG THE GIRLS ALL SCREAMED—”

Hill burst into laughter before joining badly.

“NOW THEY RUN WHEN I TAKE OFF MY SHIRT!”

The two men howled at their own joke.

Billy nearly tripped into a drainage gutter.

Hill caught him with a grunt.
“Easy there, you dead goat.”

“I ain’t drunk,” Billy slurred proudly.

Hill stared at him.

“You kissed a lamp post ten minutes ago.”

Billy pointed accusingly.
“She looked lonely.”

Another explosion of laughter rolled between them as they stumbled deeper into the streets.

Copper Stone slept around them.

Windows dark.

Doors locked.

The long veins of cobblestone roads stretched endlessly through the town, glistening faintly from earlier rain. Water dripped from rooftops. Somewhere far away, machinery groaned from the night mills.

Hill raised his bottle toward the sky.

“To miners!”

“To bad decisions!” Billy replied.

“To women with low standards!”

Billy nodded solemnly.
“The backbone of society.”

Again they roared.

Their voices bounced through the empty streets before fading into the fog.

Then—

Hill stopped walking.

Billy staggered two more steps before turning.

“What?”

Hill frowned.

“There it is again.”

Billy blinked drunkenly.
“What’s again?”

Hill looked behind them.

Nothing.

Only fog.

Only silence.

Then he laughed nervously and waved it away.

“Thought I heard footsteps.”

Billy smirked.

“That’s your guilt catching up.”

“I ain’t done nothing guilty.”

Billy leaned close.

“You stole my sausage pie in '82.”

Hill looked offended.

“That was survival.”

The two men continued walking.

Continued


Hill and Billy stumbled through the sleeping streets of Copper Stone like two kings returning from war.

Except there was no glory in them.

Only liquor.

Their voices thundered through the narrow cobbled roads as they sang terribly into the cold night air, bottles swinging wildly in their hands.

“OH THE MINES ARE COLD AND THE WOMEN ARE MEAN—”

Billy forgot the next line halfway through and simply shouted instead.

“BUT THE ALE IS GOOD!”

Hill nearly collapsed laughing.

Their boots clacked loudly against the endless cobblestones that twisted between rows of cramped brick homes. The roads shimmered faintly beneath the lantern glow, slick from evening rain and stained by years of soot drifting from the factories.

Copper Stone was tired of miners.

Especially drunk ones.

The coal industry had once made the town rich. Now it only kept the town alive enough to continue suffering. Every year more mines closed. More tunnels were abandoned. Workers disappeared faster than replacements arrived.

Less pay.

More deaths.

More misery.

Most men spent their evenings too exhausted to speak.

Not Hill and Billy.

Not tonight.

A window suddenly flew open above them.

“SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTHS!” an old woman screamed.

Billy tipped his imaginary hat politely.

“Good evening, Mrs. Grent!”

“I’LL KILL YOU BOTH!”

Hill burst into delighted laughter.

“She still loves us.”

Another window cracked open farther down.

A tired man holding a crying baby glared murderously into the street.

“Some people are trying to sleep!”

Billy pointed at the child.

“Teach him the song!”

The man slammed the window shut so hard the glass rattled.

Hill and Billy laughed even harder.

To them, the night was alive.

The cold air.

The drink.

The freedom before another miserable dawn underground.

Tomorrow they would return to the mines like always—backs bent, lungs blackened, fingers numb from digging through endless dark earth.

But tonight?

Tonight they were legends.

Billy climbed onto a wooden crate beside the road and raised his bottle dramatically.

“To Hill!”

Hill pointed proudly to himself.

“The ugliest miner in Copper Stone!”

Billy nodded.

“A true achievement!”

Hill bowed deeply and nearly fell face-first into the mud.

Their laughter echoed through the sleeping town again.

Somewhere nearby, dogs barked.

Babies cried.

Tired wives cursed beneath their breath.

But the drunks did not care.

The world was far too miserable to spend sober.

Hi, is any one following this?

WriterX:
Hi, is any one following this?

you just got someone new. So yes someone is following nice storyline and please 🙏 hope this ride reaches it’s final destination and doesn’t stop on the road

yungbanks:
you just got someone new. So yes someone is following nice storyline and please 🙏 hope this ride reaches it’s final destination and doesn’t stop on the road

Glad to hear that, I appreciate the response

yungbanks:
you just got someone new. So yes someone is following nice storyline and please 🙏 hope this ride reaches it’s final destination and doesn’t stop on the road

Although this is discontinued for now, this is one of my many projects at Hand. If you love the supernatural, mystery, murder mystery, vampires, fan of CASTLEVANIA, LORD OF MYSTERY.

Then you will enjoy this.

HOW TO SAVE A VAMPIRE

https://www.nairaland.com/8523309/discontinued