Prologue: St. Sourira-du-Lac
It was a cheerful and cute, albeit somewhat sleepy Quebec village – turned – city. In the old part of town, the quaint houses were painted bright reds, oranges, and blues, and the tidy, orderly gardens in front of them showed off their lively and colourful beds of flowers. Small, excitable birds twittered happily, while squirrels and chipmunks scurried around the many trees. The warm-coloured cobblestone roads that were still in use in the oldest part of the city wound their way around the charming houses, and smaller offshoots snaked through the small groves scattered around the community.
A massive marble building had been erected on the tallest hill in the centre of the city, and it stood out amongst the Bavarian-like charm. The enormous edifice had been built in the style of the Greek civilization of ancient times, perhaps modelled after Plato's academy or another such establishment. Some would call it a beautiful work of classical architecture mixed with dashings of neo-baroque detailing, while others proclaimed the structure to be a blemish on the face of the city.
Apparently, the association housed in this building had not only brought old-world culture to this unregarded village in Quebec, but it had also more than doubled the population -duplexes and small apartment buildings had seemingly spontaneously appeared all over the town ever since the large building had been built a few years back, and many houses were being built all the time. The city’s population had risen from 10,000 to nearly 100,000 in that short amount of time. It had also evolved from being strictly francophone to being mostly English-speaking with a few odd Frenchies here and there.
A banner on the pediment above the arched entrance of the large building read "The Philosopher & Mad Scientist's Association". Despite this rather curious name, the PMSA was a very successful organization, combing the talents of brain surgeons, rocket scientists, and evolutionary philosophers all over the world. Families had come from all over the world – as far as Italy, Spain, Greece, Japan, and Ontario – to settle down in this bustling town which held prospects of even more growth. The town had thus become a mix of both old and new, though the old generally kept their distance from the new.
A painted and splintery wooden sign exclaimed to the world that they were entering the town of St Sourira-du-Lac. Underneath it, someone had written "Home of the WEIRDO club, get out while you can", in bold, friendly letters. You wouldn't expect a serial murderer to live in a cute village called "St. Sourira-du-Lac". But still, you never knew.
Luckily, this story has very little to do with the serial murderer or the 99-odd crimes he committed, since he is very quintessentially evil, and already thoroughly covered in another story anyways, which happens to be entitled “Quintessential”. He is only occasionally mentioned and referred to throughout this piece, along with several others involved in the same story.
This story is about someone entirely different, who is not quite quintessentially anything. And there is a murderer this tale, too.
I: Birth and Death in the Same Episode