Inside the Archive, she stood.
Leaning against a bookcase filled with dvds, running her finger along each and every one before she stopped. Furrowing her brows together as she looked behind her for naught but a brief moment, taking the dvd out of the bookcase and darting towards the dvd player. Opening it up, shoving the dvd in, and pressing play all within the span of a second. As though her own actions were in fast-motion.Song Family Manor, Version A, Part 1It was raining. The moon was the only light in the sky, illuminating the clouds surrounding it and blocking out every other star that tried its best to shine as bright as possible. The little girl standing in her uncle’s large, expansive backyard- almost big enough to be a forest of its own found this annoying, yet beautiful. The moonlight reflecting off the clouds, reflecting of the puddles in the grassy maze. Splashing against the fish pond, the flowers carefully bordering said pond all growing next to each other in a mismatched, yet beautiful display of plants from the worlds over. From what she remembered, the yellow flowers at the very centre, the almost rose-like ones were from her uncle's home. Somewhere she had asked many times to be able to visit, but always told that 'it wasn't an option anymore'.
The canopy, with the music notes carved into it, kept her sheltered from the rain as she pulled herself up to her tip-toes, poking her head out over the banister. She kept her umbrella in her hand, as she shuffled herself past a small table for two and right over to the staircase. Holding the umbrella out in front of her as she prepared to take that first step into the puddle right at the base of the stairs.
"Nicole! Come back inside before you get your skirt dirty!" A Woman's voice- her Aunt's voice called out. The young girl paused, already disappointed as she turned around. Facing her own reflection in the shiny, pristine door. Her short, newly-trimmed strawberry-blonde bob-cut, her green eyes which turned darker near her pupils, and the freckles dotted along her peachy cheeks. Her Uncle had told her that the freckles were hereditary, and usually faded as they got older, which kind of disappointed her, she liked her freckles. She wore a short sleeved lilac blouse and a pleated, ankle length skirt as dark blue as the night sky itself. A large outline in white of a five-pointed star taking up most of the bottom-right quarter of it, with the points threatening to take over the rest of the front side of the skirt. Underneath that, were her brand new silver shoes.
"Nicole!" One of her Aunt's called out again. "I said get back inside! Your Cousins are here!"
That got her attention, Nicole practically jumped at the door and pulled it open with all of her 4-year-old might. Way more force than she needed, as it swung open like a page of a book- the rest of her unnecessary force sweeping her off her own feet and throwing her into the side room-
"Gotcha!" Before she even knew what was happening, she was in her aunt's arms. "You should really be more careful Nicole." The woman almost laughed, helpfully placing Nicole back on her feet and standing up to her full length. It was when Nicole looked up from her shoes and at her aunt’s amused eyes and then at the man in sunglasses and a suit standing next to her that the woman did laugh.
"Excuse me, Lady Layla?" The Man, one of the many people 'employed' by her family spoke up. "Miss Nicole. The others are waiting for you in the dining hall."
Layla looked over to him, still laughing as she placed her fingers to her chin. "I know, Come on." She smiled, holding her hand out for Nicole to take. The young child did so happily, grasping her hand with both of her own as she smiled up at Layla’s long, shining, thick dark brown hair that framed her face and went past her thighs that turned a lighter at the ends, her cool brown skin, those deep violet eyes and that short strapless white dress with she had on, with a pair of calf length black trousers and white heels worn underneath it. The white, floppy picture hat she was wearing looked a little out of place, with a five pointed amethyst star pinned to the little band wrapped around it- the same shape as the buckle of the belt wrapped around the waist of her dress, only with two peacock feathers poking out from behind it.
Layla smiled down at Nicole as she walked past the man in sunglasses and through the door into the complex hallways of the Song Family Manor. Red velvet carpeting and wallpaper that matched. The man with the sunglasses followed behind them.
"Do you really have to accompany us?" Layla asked. "I know where the dining room is."
"Please, Ma'am." The Man responded. "Estronius would want his niece to have at least two people with her, especially on a night like this one."
Layla let out another giggle. "Come on, We can handle ourselves."
"I have no doubt that you can, Miss. But Nicole's only a child. Just let me accompany you, it's only to the dining hall."
"Very well." Layla smiled, speaking as though the entire conversation amused her. "I suppose I can let you accompany me." The Man said nothing more as the three of them walked down the hall, turning at every corner.
Nicole looked over at the walls of the hallway, at the various paintings hanging from the walls. Nicole knew that most of these paintings weren't of anyone or anything in particular. But were in fact a part of the mansions security system. According to her uncle, the system could be activated at any time. The eyes of the figures in all of these portraits were actually the barrels of automatic guns that could be activated at any time in case a rival faction broke in. She could see the parts of the walls that were fake, many entrances to the hidden hallways dotted throughout the mansion for family members to escape through in a similar scenario. Her uncle really had thought of everything when designing his home.
They reached the end of the hallway before too long, one door directly in front of them and another to their right. The door to their right lead them into the left side of the foyer, undoubtedly where the guests were being greeted, checked for weapons and hanging up their coats, while the one right in front of them lead straight to the expansive dining room.
----
Estronius Song was a incredibly tall, well-built man. Always the tallest person in the room at any given time, and usually the broadest. Pale white skin, focused eyes that were, as of this moment, as blue as the night sky. A Tattoo of a ink-black, five pointed star hiding behind his left ear, a trail of smaller, similar tattoo's making their way down the back of his neck. Only exposed by his bald head. He wore a velvety dark button up shirt, with the collar pulled all the way up to his square chin underneath a black double-breasted suit. A treble-clef shaped brooch hung from the suit pocket, fitting neatly to the sheet music pattern around the lining of said pocket.
He leaned forwards in his chair, the biggest of all of the chairs around the dining table. Elegant Wine glasses, candelabras and empty plates covering the stainless white tablecloth, propping his own face up by placing a fist- with the same starlight tattoos sneaking up the back of the hand as he kept his attention on the people seated around him. Most of the seats were unoccupied, but several members of the family, and other friends of the family had arrived a bit earlier than expected, most of them either waiting for the rest to arrive or talking to whoever was next to them. That's certainly what his older sister was doing, at any rate.
"Brother." The woman seated to him spoke, a peach-skinned lady with wide, dark green eyes that were almost black, short messy white hair pulled behind her ears and reaching her neck, with the hair right behind her ears being noticeably longer than the rest, wearing an oversized tan coat, a silver button down shirt with only the bottom 3 buttons buttoned - revealing some skin and a golden bass-clef necklace dangling down under it- and finally a pair of black cargo pants tucked into zippered uggs. The star shaped emerald earring attached to her right ear jingled as she leaned her entire left side against the table, crossing her legs as she placed her fist square on a kitchen plate. She had a rather low voice all things considered, if Nicole remembered her terms correctly, she was a contralto. "Listen to me. Bene-"
"You don't need to tell me. I already know, and rest assured, I feel the same way that you do... Nobody can approve of his actions, not even me." Estronius cut her off, his ridiculously deep voice reverberating through the room, his treble-clef brooch and the cutlery vibrating like tuning forks.
"And what will you be doing about him?" The man on the woman's other side, with warm skin and dark brown hair, parted to the side with shaved sides. Wearing a red button up shirt that matched his eyes underneath a black coat, with a dark blue scarf patterned like the night sky itself draped over his shoulders, with clouds, stars and the moon woven into it. A star shaped keychain dangling from his belt. No jewel in it though, it’s just shaped like that.
"Vincent, let me handle this." The Woman started-
"It is being handled, Suzy." Estronius frowned, his every word drowning the room in confidence. "Besides, don't you think we should at least give him the chance to give his defense before the verdict is reached?"
"Assuming he even shows up." The Woman, Suzy, rolled her eyes. Tilting her head and letting gravity pull it down into the palm of her hand as the one of the side doors opened up without a sound behind her.
Estronius whirled around with speed unexpected of such a bulky man as Layla and Nicole walked through the door. His large caterpillar-eyebrows shooting upwards. "Ah, Layla." He smiled. "Nicole, my darling niece, please, take your seats."
"I'll catch up with you later, short stuff." Layla smiled as she walked her way around the table, giving Estronius a light peck on the cheek as she walked past him. It kind of annoyed Nicole, the second Estronius was in sight she stopped paying attention to her. From Estronius’s reaction it looked like the kiss had annoyed him too, he was giving her a mild glare as she walked over to her seat on the other side of the table, she may take the name later, but she wasn’t an actual blood-member, so she sat on the side opposite of him. In-between a pudgy man with chalk white skin, matching combed hair and light grey eyes in a ugly blue and white pinstripe stroller suit who kept checking his pocket watch and some other guy with an almost golden fake tan and bright banana-yellow mullet, wearing a pink open-chest shirt and a star shaped ruby necklace, complete with garish shutter shades and a police badge she was pretty confident was real. Nicole had seen those two talking with Estronius before, but didn't actually know who they were. She didn't like them.
Her seat was on the same side as her uncles, but off at one of the corners of the table, with the rest of the 'kids.'. All four of them, that was. Regardless of their parent’s actual placement in the family or reason for attending, they were all grouped together for convenience sake. Right now, only two of the children’s seats were occupied, Nicole took her spot between one of the empty seats- the one that would've been occupied by Benevici's kid-, and between the oldest of the 'kids', Charlotte. Who was tapping away at the keypad of her phone, playing snake on her Nokia to pass the time.
"Yo." Charlotte spoke, devoid of tone as Nicole took her seat next to her. She was about 15 years old, her black, straightened shoulder length hair had several clearly fake red, purple, blue, green and yellow knee-length braids attached to it by very visible hairpins, and thin brown eyebrows that gave her original hair colour away that failed to hide behind a fringe cut cleanly above her eyes. She was wearing a black open-shouldered crop top that didn't even reach her stomach, with the words 'im one unstoppable bitch' splattered across the chest in comic sans. Alongside this she wore a rainbow checkerboard miniskirt with mesh lining, and knee high black leather boots. Her smoky, light grey eyes were covered with fake lashes, glitter and black mascara, too preoccupied with the game she was playing to even look at Nicole. Lastly she had a several layers of dark freckles on her face, shoulders and arms, dotting her otherwise light skin.
"...I like your shirt." Nicole offered, lying through her teeth.
"Thanks, I got it from hot topic." was Charlotte's response. Killing the conversation.
Nicole paused, looking at Charlotte's eyes and then tried again. "Why do you have glitter on your face?"
"Wouldn't you like to know." was Charlotte's response. Killing the conversation again, so soon after it had been revived.
Nicole stopped trying to talk to Charlotte after that. Opting instead to peer past her, and past everyone else to look at her uncle. Usually, he'd be looking over at her as though he knew exactly when she would look to him, if he wasn't already talking to someone, but tonight his attention was squarely on the biggest of the many doors into the dining hall, the one that lead straight to the foyer, underneath the staircases.
"Mr. Benevici's really pissed your daddy off, huh?" The only other kid present said, moving from his chair to the empty one next to Nicole. David; a 9 year old kid- 5 years her senior- whose father was the family lawyer. A Short, bony boy with warm golden-brown skin, neat and slick tapered brown hair, a long nose and almond-shaped honey brown eyes, wearing a striped orange cardigan and khaki trousers.
Nicole looked at him out of the corner of his eyes as he hooked his bag with his foot and pulled it under his chair. "He's not my dad, David."
"Yes he is." David frowned, "You live with him, that means he's your dad."
"No it doesn't."
"Yes it does. Anyway-" David reached under his seat and pulled out his backpack. "I brought my gameboy. Do you have yours?"
Nicole blinked. "Don't you have a second one?"
"...Just because I have two doesn't mean you can have my spare." David frowned, rummaging through his bag and pulling his GBA out, placing it on the table before he reached back in to pull the second out from the sea of paper, CDs and GBA games.
"Can I have your spare?" Nicole asked anyway.
"Did you seriously not bring your own?" David asked, Nicole shook her head. "Seriously? You live here! You couldn't just go to your room and grab it?"
"No." Nicole answered plainly, providing no further context.
"Keep it down pipsqueaks, I'm trying to eavesdrop over here." Charlotte droned from Nicole's right.
"But noone's saying anything." Was Nicole's response, which tragically went un-responded to as the door that had garnered so much attention creaked open. Slamming into the walls it was hinged onto, pulling Nicole's attention towards it as one, single person walked through.
The man who walked through the door kept his firm grey eyes low, one hand holding onto the brim of his black fedora, which had a alto-clef pinned to it, the other hand balled into a fist. Wearing a white button up shirt that failed to contain his muscles underneath a dual-toned grey waistcoat, with a grey rose and a sapphire star brooch attached to its lapel. What short amount of hair he did have was tucked into his hat.
"..Ah, Benevici." Estronius smiled, his reverberating voice betraying his sour mood where his body language did not.
"Brother." Benevici said, keeping his grip on his hat as everyone in the room turned to face him.
"I see you didn't bring your wife, or your child with you." Suzy pointed out, not looking at anything in particular as she poked at her ear-ring. Benevici scrunched his eyes up at her, trying to hide his glare behind the brim of his hat. Suzy's grin stretched out as she slapped the table, "Oh, right, not your wife anymore, is she?"
"No. She isn't." Benevici's scrunched up glare turned into a full on grimace. Meeting Suzy's bemused eyes with his own.
"Suzy." Estronius cleared his throat, "Please. Let me handle this."
Suzy moved both of her hands behind her head, leaning back in her chair as Vincent looked over at her. She leaned back in her seat with a satisfied grin. "Sure, I'll let you deal with our incompetent brother."
Benevici gritted his teeth, as Estronius adjusted his posture. "...Please, sit. Across from me, if you would. Take that empty seat right in front of you."
"Aha, shit!" David cackled under his breath in Nicole's ear, as Benevici looked to the empty seat on Estronius's left.
"Not that one. Not now." Estronius said, "Not after you lead the police straight to one of our warehouses."
Benevici opened his mouth to talk, but Estronius cut him off before anyone could hear anything. "All of that merch shipped in from seven, the chief’s been putting a lot of effort into keeping the cops off our tracks and it's been wasted because of your little slip-up. He couldn’t even risk showing up here today because of you!"
'seven' Nicole stared blankly at everyone seated at the table, at their accusatory glares aimed at the silently fuming Benevici. She had heard them referring to places as numbers before, and concluded that it might've just been a way to keep the locations secret in case someone was listening, her uncle was smart like that.
"It wasn't my-" Benevici started-
"Whose was it, then?" Estronius asked. "If mistakes like this keep happening, and members of our family can't obtain what they need, what they want, then they're not going to be satisfied, a business can't run without it's income, and it can't have any income if there's nothing to sell, which means business slows to a crawl, can't pay its employees, can't afford to keep itself running, so for the good of the family... Somebody's got to be held accountable."
"... ....." Benevici was silent, unable to form a response. Not with everyone's eyes on him, not with Suzy's expectant grin, with Nicole's bland gaze, with Estronius's cold, shifting eyes that dulled in colour as they looked to him, like a sky hiding it's stars behind the clouds. Even the disapproving stares of those like Layla, or Vincent.
"A Pity." Was all Estronius said, before his eyes closed. Letting Benevici's own breath fail him before speaking again, "Fortunately for you, you are still my brother. We'll sort all of this out, rest assured."
"What!?" The Tan Man in the open-shirt exclaimed, letting his shutter shades fall off his face and reveal a pair of eyes that were way too pink. "We'll sort all of this out!? You're not even going to-"
"I will be taking action to prevent my younger brother from slipping up a second time, rest assured." Estronius answered the man's question before he could ask it. "Please return to your seat, Stewart."
The Man with the Tan scowled at Benevici, but did as Estronius asked of him. Nicole leaned off her seat, her head floating above the very center of the table as she looked over at her uncles. Estronius's eyes opened, as grey as Benevici's, while Benevici closed his own, nodding.
"..I appreciate it.." Benevici said, as he sat down in the seat right in front of him. Across from Estronius instead of next to him.
Suzy's smile faded as she, and several others seated at the table blinked. Varying shades of confusion painted across their faces. The Man seated next to Benevici awkwardly shifted away from him. "..Is that it?" Suzy asked, expectantly. "Just, 'We'll sort this out', and nothing else?"
Estronius closed his eyes again, running a single finger along his cheek. "Hm. There's more. We do still need to sort it out after all. I think it'd be best if you stayed out of our affairs for a while, Benevici."
This got Suzy grinning again, nearly lurching out of her seat as Benevici's eyebrows snapped upwards.
"By which, you mean..?" Benevici asked, his attempts to stop his own teeth grinding together proving futile.
Suzy lunged forwards; clasping the table with both of her hands, "He means your-"
"I'll book a flight to Augustus for you, or to the Octave Archipelago if you prefer? You get to have a nice relaxing vacation while we wait for this whole thing to blow over." Estronius explained.
"Not even Hawaii?"
"Goodness no, too expensive for him." The comments of a pair off to the side caught Benevici's attention, but Estronius talked again before he could give them anything resembling a death glare.
"In comparison to what I could do, this isn't a punishment at all." Estronius explained. "I'm not taking any money, or any fingers, because I'm not a brute, you see. You should just accept what I'm offering you, brother."
"I...I!" Benevici started. "I-"
"Y-"
"Stop interrupting me, brother!" Benevici snarled. Grabbing the table as though he was about to throw it, Nicole tensed up in her chair. "I put just as much into making this family as you did! You can't just throw me out of it!"
"And I am not." Estronius explained. "If I was, you'd feel it. Now take what I'm offering you before I change my mind and actually do 'throw you out of it'."
Benevici glared at him, fists tightening around the formerly pristine tablecloth. Everybody was looking at him, she could see some of them reaching for their weapons, while others leaned away with looks of fear or forwards with looks of excitement. Estronius was the only one without any expression, only cool grey eyes that matched Benevici's own.
He lowered his shoulders, looking down to the table. For a moment, it was too silent.
"...Now then, how about dinner?" Estronius.
...
Dinner was nice, but the mood kind of ruined it for Nicole. The entire time Benevici was only taking courtesy bites out of his food, glaring at his siblings from across the table as everyone else ate their fill, a couple of people voicing their concerns or talking about business plans in between bites. A couple of people were concerned about police activity, about potential buyers, about other gangs causing chaos, as far as she was concerned it was all the same as every other meeting in that regard. It wasn't worth the effort of processing their sentences, so she didn't. When Benevici had finished his meal he left without a word, seething. Nicole was unable to focus on the rest of the meeting.
Which was why she spent the rest of her time at that table watching David playing his GBA, at least until he paused and looked up, she followed his gaze to see several family members making their exits. It appeared the meeting had been adjourned. She looked towards the door to see Charlotte already leaving, still tapping away at her phone as her mother, a tall, woman wearing a black coatdress with prominent shoulder pads, hoop earrings, square sunglasses and red knee-high boots, with her brown hair held into a knotted ponytail at her shoulder by numerous hairclips, most notably a star shaped one at the back made out of clear quartz, dark brown lipstick complimenting her ever so faintly tanned skin, “You can't just spend your entire life glued to that tiny screen!" She admonished her, Charlotte's father, the large man in the pinstripe suit following wordlessly behind them.
David’s father, the family lawyer stood up from his seat and gestured for his son to put his game away and leave. The family’s lawyer; one Ryuichi Takada shared his son’s skin-tone and facial features, with long black hair that curled at his shoulders and a thin anchor beard, with shrewd-looking amber eyes that gave him a charm that his son lacked, wearing a black button up shirt and a red tie with grape vine designs beneath a wine coloured business suit, with a pair of white framed glasses resting on his nose and finally a citrine star shaped ring on the index finger he was pointing with, the man cast a small glance towards Estronius and Suzy, who were still talking amongst themselves.
"You're letting him off way too easy!" Nicole could hear Suzy exclaiming, as Layla, from where she was now standing, looked over to the young girl. Following her gaze, before walking over to her. She walked all the way around David (as he frantically shoved everything into his bag; zipping it up as he ran over to his own fatherwith no more than a 'Bye, Nic') and then walked all the way around Nicole, before walking right in between her and Estronius, blocking the sight of their conversation from the child.
"Hey, come on, let your uncle sort this out with his sister. These kinds of things are best kept private." Layla said, smiling at her as she held Nicole's arm, pulling her out of her seat as she stood up. "Do you want to see everyone off?"
"Not really."
"Then, how about we go to the garden instead?" Layla suggested. "That way we won't be seeing anyone off."
Nicole pouted “But I want to play with my Uncle!”
Layla looked over her shoulder, to the two siblings that were deep in their discussion and the lawyer walking over to discuss something Nicole didn’t care about with them. “...Your uncles busy right now, dear.” She said, “So why don’t you come with me for now? Maybe you can show me how to get to the center of the maze while they talk. I've tried before, but I always get lost."
"But... won't I get my skirt dirty?" Nicole asked.
"Well, I'll make sure you don't, does that sound good?"
"Yeah, we can do that. No problem!"
Layla smiled, kindly.
----
It was no longer raining, but the stars were still blotted out by the clouds, and the garden had almost been transformed into a marsh by the earlier rainfall. But just in case, Layla made sure to carry an umbrella out with her just in case as Nicole dragged her along by the hand towards the hedge-maze in the distance.
"So if his wife took his daughter, this mean I won't get to see her again?" Nicole had asked as they walked past the lake and the many different flowers growing around it.
"Maybe." Layla said, turning to glance towards the windows of the mansion as they left it and the events transpiring inside it behind. "It depends on what his ex thinks, doesn't it?"
"I don't think she likes us anymore." Nicole commented.
"Do you like her?"
"Not really. Mrs. Benevici is really mean." Nicole said.
"Well, I'm sure she cares about you, some people are just really harsh to those they love, that's all." Layla said, Nicole looked up at her.. the smile on her face didn't match her tone at all. So the young child doubted its validity.
"..Like how Uncle Estronius is being harsh to Uncle Benevici?" Nicole turned to look straight ahead again, her pristine shoes getting stained with wet mud as she stepped in a puddle.
Layla nodded, her comfort fading as she peered behind her again. "..Yeah, just like that sweetie." She said, without giving much thought to the matter herself. Without giving much thought to the mansion behind her.
...Layla contradicted herself, as soon as the mansion was gone from her sight, from Nicole's sight, it was all she could think about.
---
The woman paused the DVD, automatically it slid out of the player.
...She paused, there was someone behind her. She could tell. Moving her hand over the dvd and lifting it up, placing it in its case and shoving it under her shirt she turned around to face the intruder.
A tall, lanky man with pale skin, white hair and bright green eyes was standing at the entrance to the library. Armor covering most of his body but oddly leaving his hands completely bare. His eyebrows were pressed against his eyelids, he wasn't even hiding his stern expression as he stared at her.
"...I was just leaving." The woman said, turning a corner and vanishing behind a bookshelf.
She waited, waited until she heard the noise of armored footsteps squeaking against the floor, the sound of a door closing. The sound of someone who had been staring at her with hatred leaving. It wasn't surprising, of course she'd be looked at like that. The god who placed her amongst this cast did so on a whim because he took a liking to her, it was too be expected that it'd be met with some discontent within the ranks.
Peering past the shelves to confirm that the door had closed, she went back to the dvd player and ripped it out of the wall. She'd return it later, maybe.
It was no good, this place wasn't home, she wasn't safe. Grabbing a few other dvds from the shelves she vanished behind another set of bookcases. ---
Now in her room, she tossed all the DVD's onto her bed. They all were of different colours, different patterns, different designs but they shared the same designation. 5-A.
It wasn't right. Did she really change things this much? Clive wasn't there, neither was...
What else had changed? Was it her that did this...? Or did someone else alter the past the same way?
What happened?
This was no time for asking questions, not when it was so easy to obtain answers. She still had the DVD she was watching. Taking it out and inspecting it...
she placed it gently with the rest. Stories of Omnipotents, Stories of civilians, stories of maidens, stories of guardians...
She couldn't pull her eyes away from the image of her own original, younger self. Standing there in place, accompanied by the sound of a ticking clock as she looked down at it.
Tears welling in her eyes, she picked it up again... she wanted to know. She really did, she wanted to understand the differences between the world she created and the one she used to live in.
She knew that she was a part of F, anyone could figure that out from context clues alone, but...
Nicole placed the DVD back in the player and pressed play. Revisiting her past.
---
It was around 30 or so years before this event when 9 out of 12 omnipotents were killed and a 10th was executed, if she was taught correctly. It wasn’t just them of course, the entire island was set on fire and numerous other lives were lost, but most people only cared about the loss of their relatives or the omnipotents. It had changed everything, but this family had managed to keep going, now they were arguably stronger than they had been ever before. She and Suzy had arrived here later than the rest; they’d only been here for about 3 years each, so by the time they showed up, this pagoda that had been built in memoriam to those lost and the box in the center were both already a part of the garden and had been for a long time.
Nicole didn't go outside often, but her younger, original self would do so frequently.
The box in the center of the pagoda, on a pedestal, remained closed. Even as Layla stood over it, both hands placed at the lid, fingers feeling the surface.
"...What's in the box?" The original Nicole asked, sitting with her hands trapped beneath her butt on one of the benches, next to the umbrella.
"All of the evils in the world." Layla told her, smiling. That was a lie, the box that contained all of the worlds evils was somewhere else at this time, all this box had in it was a fedora and a gun.
They could both smell burning, but neither moved from the maze. A unspoken agreement between them, at least for now.
Smell turned to sight as the night sky seemed to turn red, even in the center of this large, expansive garden. It was almost silent, there was nothing to distract them from the sound of wood burning, of something sizzling.
Then, a gunshot, two gunshots, a window breaking.
Layla had turned away from the box, straining her eyes, they were too separated from the ominous noises to accurately tell what was going on, Nicole was too young to recognize most of these noises herself and she was far too young, too scared to ask what was going on.
Staring at the past like this, it was the only way she could know what her Aunt was feeling at this stage. It had dawned on Layla that something was going wrong, that was why she had walked away, saying"Stay here sweetie, okay. Auntie's going to go check it out" as she vanished behind the rosebushes keeping them safe from the grass and the view of a mansion on fire.
Whatever metaphysical camera that had recorded this moment and burned it onto this DVD had followed after Layla, leaving Nicole’s reaction to happen off-screen. That was fine, she knew how she reacted to this.
Layla ran between the roses, before turning and making her way down a different path, reaching into her dress and pulling out a phone covered in emerald green rhinestones out, pressing but a single button before placing it against her ear. She wasn't out of the maze, but she was close enough to see the flames now.
"What's going on out there?" She asked, making sure to keep her voice down.
"Would you believe me if I said it was a lightning strike?"
"Fuck no, what's going on? You promised it wouldn't be a big scene!"
"Well, I'm not the one who set all the exits on fire!”
"What!? The exits? Who would do that!?”
"How am I supposed to know! Someone else must’ve had the same idea!”
"Man, fuck this!" Layla scoffed, biting on her thumb as she turned and pressed her back against the bushes.
----
...Nicole had never heard her aunt swear before.----
"Don't worry, it's fine though, I did everything the way we all planned! Now I just need to find and replace his will, right?"
"No, don't bother with that!" A third voice cut through on the same phone, a woman. "I don’t care what you say, this place lighting up like this was not part of the plan! Right now we need to focus on getting out of here before whoever did this decides to pick off anyone who escapes!”
----
Nicole already knew that Layla was involved, it stung... but it wasn’t new to her. This however, this was. These other voices...----
“Layla, your job hasn’t changed! You said you were going to keep Nicole out of it, so keep her out. Kill the brat if you have to!”
“I-... I’m not going to-, she’s your niece!” Layla stared into the distance, with wide, aghast eyes.
“Do what you want with her, I don’t care! Just keep her out of our way!”
----
As she watched, Nicole understood some of what had happened, it was always a possibility she had considered... but not one she wanted to believe.
‘She’s your niece’. That instantly narrows it down to one of two people, excluding the victim. She used to call everyone Aunt’s and Uncle’s, but only her biological relatives considered her their niece.
Her hands were trembling; she wasn’t paying attention to what was on the screen anymore. She only barely perceived Layla stuffing the phone back into her dress and heading back to Nicole’s younger self- who hadn’t moved from her spot at all. Not shooting her, not threatening her, but wrapping her arms around the child like a protective mother. Like an aunt would.
She paused it again, gave herself a moment to regain her senses... then spoke. “...I swear, if you show up to talk to me right now I’m going to find a window and jump out of it.
There was no response, nothing appeared at all. She pressed play.
----
“Where are we going!?” Nicole had asked, being dragged by her wrist through the maze by a panicked Layla, who gripped a small handgun she had kept in her trousers with her other hand, turning and following the path with precision, making her way out of the maze first try, exposing Nicole to a world of flames. The umbrella was forgotten.
The mansion was on fire, the porch was on fire, patches of grass dotted in the garden, large bushes blocking out the view of the outside world... all on fire.
“...Nicole, stay behind me.” Layla told her, the young girl did as she was asked as her aunt let go of her hand, pulling her phone, covered in a music note stickers, out and pressing another button.
When she did, Estronius’s voice came out of it. “Layla- Layla, is Nicole with you!?”
“...Honey...?” Layla’s eyes had gone wide, but she regained herself and responded. “Estronius, we’re right outside of the mansion! Where are you!?”
“I’m in the hidden passage! I’ve been betrayed! Listen, I’ve already called for a getaway vehicle, take Nicole and get to safety!”
“...Uncle?” Nicole asked.
“Nicole, Nicole, don’t worry! It’s going to be fine, I can handle this. You’ll just have to live somewhere else for a while, okay?” Estronius asked her. She could remember this word for word.
Over time, her belief in Layla had whittled away, but her belief that Estronius cared for her would always remain. If it didn’t... then she wouldn’t be able to believe in anyone.
“...Uncle, what’s going on!?” Her younger self, unable to understand, asked, trying to jump up and grab the phone out of Layla’s hands unsuccessfully. “Uncle, are you in there?”
“I am, but don’t worry. As long as you’re safe, then nothing else matters.”
“No, that’s not true, that’s not true at all!”
“Layla, you know the hidden route from the maze. There’s a car waiting for you on the other end!”
“Got it!” Layla said,
“Don’t go to your home, just in case someone tries to find you there! Go somewhere nobody will be able to find you!”
Shoving the gun into her belt, she grabbed Nicole’s hand and ran past the maze, “Got it!” Layla declared.
“And...” Estronius added, his voice was quiet, “...Don’t phone this number. I’ll phone you. Listen, dear, it’s going to be fine. I’m going to be okay.”
With that, her uncle hung up and she would never hear from him again. Dragged along by her aunt past the garden maze, through the trees, to a small building shaped like a miniature church, Layla slammed her shoulder through the doorway and forced it open.
At first glance, it looked to just be a garden shed, full of all the tools one would need to- well, to keep a garden. The interior was simple and not very noteworthy in spite of the elegant designs made from stained glass and the intricately detailed shovels and trawls that filled the shelves.
Layla let go of Nicole just for a moment, grabbing hold of a shovel hanging from a hook in the wall before pressing her hand against the hook, pressing it like one would a button in a elevator. She stepped away and took hold of Nicole again as the floorboards began to open up and slide away, revealing a ladder built into a square shaped hole that appeared to go on forever.
“You know how to go down a ladder, Nicole?” Layla asked.
Nicole stared up at her, her lip wobbling as she shook her head.
“That’s fine. Here, I’ll carry you.” Wrapping one arm around her ‘‘niece’’s back before lifting her up, the small child wrapped her arms around the woman’s shoulders with the force of a bear.
The child was trembling. Layla adjusted her grip, making sure she wouldn’t drop her as she dropped herself down the chute and slid down the ladder. The hatch automatically closed itself once they passed through, but it didn’t seal them in darkness. The lights below them made sure they were still able to see.
Landing on her feet perfectly, she took off down the hall and entered what was for all intents and purposes a completely normal looking underground car park. A man in a purple shirt that failed to contain his biceps and green army camo trousers with short hair leaned out from a plain looking car, the kind most of Nicole’s family wouldn’t be caught dead in, waving over to get the two’s attention.
Still cradling Nicole in her arms, Layla ran for the car as the man inside it pushed the door to the passenger seat open, she swept herself inside like a wind and placed Nicole in the back, closing the door behind her in one movement.
“Move!” She commanded, the man obeyed, slamming his foot against the pedal and kicking the car into high gear. Nicole lurched in the back seat for a moment, reaching up for the seat belt and shoving it into the leather seating beneath her as she repeatedly failed to jam it into the slot. Layla’s eyes were firmly locked on to the passageway they had entered through and the man was more concerned with driving, making his way up a steep ramp before bursting through and sliding onto a road between a set of trees and the outer edges of the city.
There was only the moon in the sky, no stars, no clouds, not even a bird.
----
The car slid to a stop and parked out the front of a small, run down motel at the edge of town. The man at the driver’s wheel leaned back into his seat and let out a sigh of relief, closing his deep blue eyes as he put his arms behind his head. His shaved haircut, light stubble and broad shoulders, combined with his casual clothing gave him an appearance that the young Nicole didn’t like.
“What’s got you so chilled out?” Layla asked him, seething in her seat as she reached up and pulled her hat off.
“I’m just glad to have done my part, ma’am.” He said, lifting a leg up and balancing his foot on the wheel. “Nobody saw this car coming in or out, nobody’s going to be tracking you here.”
Layla could only stare at him. “Assuming we’re the targets in the first place. The head’s house was on fire, you got that?”
“He’ll be fine, for sure. Man’s got out of worse unscathed in his younger days.”
“We’ve all heard the stories.” Layla sighed, taking her gun out from her belt and checking the bullets inside it. Once she was satisfied with the bullet-count, she placed it to her side and looked back to the driver. “...So, you got a name?”
“Yes ma’am, name’s Mills.”
“Well, Mills. Were you given a destination to drive us to?”
“Yes ma’am, this is it.”
“...Well, Mills. I’m afraid we can’t stay here.”
“Why not?”
“Because, Mills, look at my dress! Look at Nicole’s dress!” She said, gesturing to Nicole’s dress. “The people who stay here must spend like, 5p a week for this place! Anyone could turn their head here and see us, thinking ‘wow, these people spend all that money on their dresses then they stay at this run down shack? They’re going to have us in their heads forever and complain to their wives about it!”
“...Their wives?”
“Wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, polyamorous lovers, who cares!” She exclaimed, slamming her fist into the windscreen. “You know who you’re working for, you know who I’m working for! We are people wearing expensive clothing, parked out front of the cheapest motel I’ve ever seen! Do you think people that spend their nights with children at this kind of place show up wearing what I’m wearing, what you’re wearing!?”
“I-I... No, ma’am.” Mills asked, shrinking into his seat.
“What do you think they wear here, Mills?”
“I-I... Hoodies? Flashy raincoats? Rhinestones and miniskirts?”
“Close, but they’re more likely to be wearing totally normal t-shirts and jeans, the kind that cost 20 pound at most. Maybe 50 if they have a band’s album cover printed on them! Not ones that clearly cost 800 like yours did!”
“M-“ Mills swallowed his spit, “My shirt did not cost 800!”
“It looks like it did. It has that pre-ripped jeans aesthetic going on.” Layla told him. “Now, I happen to know a place where people dressed like we are would fit in perfectly. So we’re going to head there now and you’re going to drive us there.”
“Alright, alright, sheesh.” Mills rolled his eyes, putting his hands back on the wheel. “Tell me where to go, your highness.”
A harsh glare from Layla had him looking out of the window and avoiding her gaze in an instant.
As he put his foot to the pedal again and began driving to a place more suiting to Layla’s tastes, Nicole turned her head out to gaze out of the window.
There was a woman standing on the side of the road, wearing a green jacket and some shorts, with bushy black hair and dark green eyes making direct eye contact with her. The woman on the side of the road and the small girl in the car continued to stare at each other until she was gone from sight.
From there, Nicole had nothing else to stare at but the moon, the moon and the streetlights. The lights from houses or buildings they would occasionally pass... the light from the radio that was so quiet she couldn’t even hear what was playing...
Her heart was going too fast, she was too aware of everything. It was impossible to sleep, especially in this unfamiliar street. It wasn’t safe here, not at all.
...And, her uncle... he was going to be fine, wasn’t he? He was pretty tough; someone like him could survive anything. Nicole didn’t have any reason to doubt that, she’d spend a night in a hotel with her aunt and then it’d be back to normal. Maybe some guys would stop showing up to dinner, but that’d be fine.
----
Nicole stared at the screen. At this point, she didn’t know. How could she? She was only 4.
For some reason, she could only stare at everyone here in that car with irritation. ‘Why didn’t you go in? Try to help him?
...No, I know why. But if you really cared about me, you would have ignored that and saved him anyway. It wouldn’t have been hard. Not in the slightest.’----
That night, in another part of the city, the family’s lawyer: Ryuichi was standing at the edge of the balcony in his apartment. Having abandoned his suit jacket and tie on a reclining sofa so he could relax easier, revealing his red y-shaped suspenders. Twirling an unlit cigarette between two fingers and clasping a lighter in the same palm. He had removed his ring when he got home, not fond of wearing jewellery in his own home.
Light jazz was coming from the interior of the apartment, where his wife was reclining on the large leather sofa in front of the TV with her knees drawn up to her chest. He could see her just by turning his head, but she was enraptured by the ocean view on the TV. Her short, sky blue hair hadn’t been brushed at all, avoiding her light brown skin entirely on its own, her honey brown eyes hadn’t moved in the slightest, she hadn’t even changed out of her night gown. It was the same mint green one with hummingbird and flower patterns on it that barely even covered her legs that she was wearing when he woke up in the morning. She still had her black chandelier earrings on as well.
When he and David had gone home, the first thing he did was sent his son to bed. In the time since, his wife hadn’t moved from her spot at all. The channel hadn’t changed either, leading him to suspect she was watching a screensaver again. He’d have to change the channel to something more interesting for her, wouldn’t he? Probably have to check the kitchen cabinet again to see what she’d taken while he wasn’t looking...
She looked almost small compared to the room around her, but that was more a testament to how large the apartment was than anything else. The TV was framed by bookcases full of law books with a large landscape painting above it, the table the chairs were gathered around had symmetrically placed lava lamps on either end of it. 3 stairs at the back led to the dining table. The kitchen was off in an alcove by itself while the bedrooms, his work-from-home desk and everything else this apartment had to offer were up a flight of spiral stairs.
The elaborate description of this one man’s apartment and his staring at his wife were both interrupted by the sound of a synthesized doorbell, followed by a woman’s voice coming from the intercom. “Mr. Takada, open the door. It’s urgent.”
The lawyer frowned, “...Honestly...” He sighed to himself, walking back into the apartment. Letting the balcony’s curtains and the twirling designs on them flow in the wind behind him as he made his way to the door, discarding the unlit cigarette and the lighter next to his citrine star ring on the table in front of her. “Keep an eye on those, would ya darling?” He asked his disassociating wife as he continued past her, heading through a small hallway at the other end of the living space that split off into an open closet full of their coats and shoes and the front door to his apartment, where someone was waiting.
He grabbed the door handle and swung it open, staring down at the face of the Song Family Head’s younger sister, Suzy. She wasn’t alone; Vincent was accompanying her as per usual, as was a second bodyguard, a generic looking guy with white skin and blond hair in a plain button up and jeans, who could be mistaken for a regular person, were it not for the fact that he was standing behind and towering over Suzy. She wasn’t even that small, but when she constantly surrounded herself with people as tall as this collection it wasn’t hard to view her as such.
“You understand I’m just the lawyer, right?” Ryuichi asked her, with a single raised eyebrow. “What’s more; I’m your brother’s lawyer, not yours. Just because he’s going to end up hiring me to deal with your problems doesn’t mean you can show up on my front door whenever you want.”
“Stuff it, it’s an emergency.” Suzy told him, “Can we come in?”
The lawyer cast a quick glance behind him, his son was asleep, his wife was completely out of it, so... “Sure, you can come in. I’ll make us some coffee.”
“Lemonade.” Suzy insisted, as Ryuichi stepped out of her way so she and her flunkies could enter his home.
“Right, lemonade then.” Ryuichi nodded, bristling slightly when the second guy brushed against his shoulder. Following Suzy as she walked over to the chairs gathered together near the TV and threw herself into a small one only fit for one person, crossing her legs and leaning against the armrest.
Vincent and the other guy both stood on either side of her as she looked over to the woman pulled up against herself, still staring at the screensaver on the TV. “...Tsubasa.” Suzy nodded, acknowledging her.
“Don’t bother. She’s on a whole different planet right now.” Ryuichi called out, glancing at the rest as he went over to the kitchen. Vincent was sitting himself down on the other end of the long couch while the other guy was still standing behind Suzy like he had nothing better to do, staring over at Ryuichi through the corner of his narrow blue eyes. Ryuichi ignored him as he stepped past the spiral stairs and into the kitchen.
Walking past a kitschy sign hanging by the fridge; a portrait of a monkey with the current queens haircut and trademark dress, he went and opened said fridge, covered in nonsensical arrangements of letters and fridge magnets with swans on them to pull out a single bottle of brand-name lemonade from amidst the alcohol (for him) and the child friendly juices and soda (for David).
Next, he opened up a small cupboard, finding a half open container of pills had been knocked over, with a few of the things spilling out. He rolled his eyes as he placed the pills back in the bottle and placed it upright before going over to grab a pint for the guest. Near where he kept a few small pistols, just in case.
He could see his son’s reflection on the fridge, standing atop the spiral stairs. Ryuichi ignored it, taking a pistol, shoving it into his pocket, pouring the lemonade into the pint glass and making his way back.
“Here you go.” Ryuichi said, holding the pint of lemonade out for Suzy, who snatched it eagerly as he made his way over to the chair opposite of hers and reclined in it. “Now, what’s this about, exactly?”
Suzy held a single finger up as she brought the pint of lemonade to her face, chugging as much of it as she could in one take. Ryuichi put a hand to his chin, idly looking over to his non-responsive wife then to Vincent, who had taken the cigarette and lighter and was now smoking it for himself. He pointed at it and nodded. “That’s a nice ring.”
“Thanks, it’s a gift from Estronius.” Ryuichi said.
“They’re all gifts from Estronius.” Suzy spoke, simultaneously talking and drinking the last of the lemonade; having finished the entire pint she slammed the glass to the table before meeting eyes with her lawyer. “Speaking of, he’s dead.”
Ryuichi blinked, “Damn, no kidding?”
“No kidding. He’s dead. Someone went and lit the entire mansion on fire.” Suzy said, through gritted teeth.
“On fire?”
“Yeah, we went and got the fire department involved.” Suzy said, picking the pint glass up again and handing to the man behind her, “Yo, can you get a refill?”
Silently, the man took the glass and went into the kitchen. Ryuichi looked at Suzy with furrowed eyebrows. “Are you sure he’s dead?”
Suzy nodded. “...The fire department got involved. Won’t be long before the police catch wind of it.”
Ah, now this makes sense. “That’s hardly a problem, everything there’s clean. We’ve made sure of that in the past.” Ryuichi stated, as the bodyguard came back with a fresh refill of lemonade, which Suzy wrapped her palm around as soon as it was within range.
“It’s more than that; everyone knows he’s the head of our business, the problem is that someone pulled a hit on him and got away with it.” Suzy explained, taking a quick swig.
“We’re thinking it was Benevici, but he could just be a convenient scapegoat.” Vincent offered, taking another puff of Ryuichi’s cigarette. The lawyer struggled to contain his annoyance, instead lifting his brows and leaning back against the chair.
“You really think Benny would do that?” He asked, tilting his head slightly over to look at his wife. Her eyes were watering, just a little too dilated, nothing new, really.
“No clue.” Suzy frowned, lowering her head as she took another chug of her drink. “I missed out on a lot of their lives, turns out. Honestly, I hardly even recognize them anymore. But, I wouldn’t put it past him to do this kind of thing just out of retaliation, he’s a fucked up guy.”
“With all due respect, you’re a incredibly fucked up family.” Ryuichi told her.
“Hmm, true.” Suzy shrugged, finishing the last of her pint again. “Another refill!” She called out. The bodyguard took the pint and went back into the kitchen.
“Have you tried contacting him?” Ryuichi suggested,
“We have, he didn’t respond.” Suzy responded, immediately.
“...Well, in any case. I’ve gone over the details with Estronius before and Benevici was written out of the will entirely before the meeting even occurred.” Ryuichi shrugged. “If Benevici did this out of rage, he’s not getting anything out of it.”
Suzy’s brows rose up to meet her forehead, even Vincent paused momentarily... Ryuichi stiffened in response, his smirk fading from his face as he took in their expressions.
Suzy clicked her fingers a few times, before asking. “So, the will was changed recently? Who gets the shit Benny was going to get?”
“It’s been split into thirds. Benevici was initially only going to get some money anyway, so it’s been split between you, Nicole and Benevici’s most recent ex: The one that took his daughter with her.” Ryuichi explained.
“Are you allowed to tell us this?” Vincent asked.
“He’s already dead, so it really doesn’t matter.” Ryuichi put a hand to his knee.
“Have you talked about this with anyone else?” Vincent leaned over the table.
Ryuichi narrowed his eyes at the man, “Why do you even care, man?”
“Well, maybe someone with a bit more to gain would have more of a reason to kill him.” Vincent shrugged.
Suzy lowered a brow, “Assuming it’s even about the inheritance. There are plenty of other reasons someone would want him dead.”
“...Yeah, you’re right, Suzy.” Vincent conceded.
“It wouldn’t work that way either, I’m the only person Estronius has talked with about this, so going off of who gets the most from that wouldn’t give you anything useful because nobody else knows.” Ryuichi stated.
“My money’s still on Benny.” Suzy said, Ryuichi leaned back in his seat, tentatively feeling at his own trouser pocket. She looked to him and continued, “El cut him off, he got pissed and retaliated. It’s not like he had anything left to lose anymore. His ex took the kid and ex-communicated him, he fucked up a deal for us and now the police have one of our warehouses on lockdown, then he gets written out of everything. No one’s on his side, he lashes out in anger. Makes sense, right?”
“With all due respect, it sounds like you’re trying to sell me something. I’m a lawyer, not a detective.” Ryuichi said.
“Hey, I’m just spit balling here my dude.” Suzy shook her head at him, as her bodyguard returned with a half pint of lemonade.
“All that was left in the bottle.” The bodyguard explained, as Suzy took the glass from him again. Ryuichi tilted his head the other direction, putting his free hand to his glasses.
“It’s tough, I don’t want to accuse my brother, but I can’t pretend to like the guy. Blood doesn’t mean shit when you’re that kind of person. He’s the first suspect that comes to mind. But, I have also considered other suspects, like someone from a rival gang looking for power, or a scenario where random people decided to try robbing him only for it to backfire horribly.” Suzy explained. “I just figured this one was the most likely, it happened on this night, that’s not a coincidence.”
“...You’re right, it’s definitely not.” Ryuichi agreed. “It’s also not a coincidence that you came personally to tell me, is it?”
“You’re the family lawyer, you need to know these things.” Suzy pointed out. “Especially when you helped him sort out his assets for the will.”
“So... you want me to get on that immediately, then?” Ryuichi asked, frowning.
“Not necessarily, just in advance.” Suzy shook her head. “Besides, there’s a bigger problem than that.”
“And that is...?” Ryuichi waved a hand in the air, his frown getting worse.
“On top of everything else, Nicole’s gone missing.”
----
Nicole paused the footage just as the scene faded to black. Leaning over and peering at screen.
‘I thought so, it came up again: ‘Daughter’... just his daughter, no mention of his son, even to each other. This is more than Clive not appearing, in this reality he wasn’t even a part of the picture, was he?
Why is that...? What changed?’
But more than that, this entire conversation between Suzy and the Family Lawyer was news to her, but not anything she really knew how to use. ‘It doesn’t’ change anything, does it? Knowing that these two were the first to talk about it...? It doesn’t change anything, it just makes it worse.’
Before she could get too angry, she stopped thinking along those lines and pressed play again.
----
Nicole herself had spent that night sitting on a bed in a luxury hotel, unable and unwilling to go to sleep. By the time the sun rose, she had no energy left and had crashed out.
The hotel suite they were staying in had 2 bedrooms, which came with their own personal bathrooms, but she had remained with Layla until she fell asleep regardless. If she let the only person left out of her sight... they might vanish as well.
But even then, when Layla opened her eyes in the morning, the godfather’s niece had fallen asleep, her head propped up against the bed. Looking at her sleeping form through half-awake eyes, Layla couldn’t help but frown when she saw that the child had fallen asleep that way, it didn’t look very comfortable.
Layla pulled herself out of bed, before lifting Nicole up and tucking her in. Letting the child get all the sleep she needed as she put on a pair of slippers, preparing herself for whatever would happen on this day. Walking over to the window and peering outside, making sure not to lean out just in case there were snipers.
They were near the shore, the queen’s island was, as the name implied, an island. The hotel Layla had Mills take her to was one typically used by foreign politicians or rich millionaire families for their summer vacations when just having a summer home wasn’t’ enough. It wasn’t too far from the town of Queenshire either, just over an hour away by car.
When it came to actual beach quality, however... most people probably preferred the fine grained sands of Augustus, but she had a fondness for the shells and pebbles covering the beach here, even if she did find its name as subtle as a sledgehammer and the hotel itself to be overpriced.
A sign too close to her window for comfort read ‘welcome to the Shell Beach Resort’. Someone else would probably be annoyed that it blocked the view of the ocean, but for her purposes... a window this close to the sign was just what she needed, as it also blocked people’s view of the window itself. The room she had chosen was one that faced away from all of the tourist attractions dotted around the beach; the fake guardian temple designed to mimic the actual one when Adam’s wife refused to let anyone else buy it from her, the kayaks and boats available for rent so you can sail across the sea, the amusement park set up nearby so the kids could be distracted. She was protected from that angle by the entire hotel itself, the sign in front of her stopped anyone at the car park, on the nearby hills, or any who are arriving from further inland from spotting her in the window either. It was the perfect piece of architecture to take advantage of if she wanted to keep herself (and Nicole) hidden without doing any work.
‘And the receptionist?’ She could remember Mills asking.
‘Don’t worry. I’ll handle that.’ She had responded, it really hadn’t been a problem at all. The receptionist didn’t know anything was going on and had no way of knowing who they were. It was the night shift anyway, people have their own lives to attend to and very few can bother to remember every little detail about everyone who comes to their establishments, especially ones as popular as this one. She felt safe enough here.
She stepped away from the window, closing the blinds again so the light wouldn’t wake up Nicole as she went and got dressed, discarding the star shaped accessories as she changed into her dress and picture hat, leaving said accessories in the closet with the hotel-supplied dressing gowns and slippers.
She went back to the bed, taking her gun and phone covered in green rhinestones from the desk drawer before making her way out of the bedroom. The gun went into her belt and she left the phone in her hand.
The luxury suite was certainly what the name implied. Not as massive and luxurious as the presidential suite or honeymoon suites, but certainly better than the regular suite. It was definitely a suite more suited to her taste than the garbage Mills had originally directed her towards.
As for Mills himself, he was asleep in a chair positioned next to a coffee table, next to a pair of glass doors that led to a pristine balcony with solid easy chairs and a folding umbrella on it. A half-emptied cup of coffee lay chilling on the table in front of him and a magazine was propped on his face, blocking the sun from his eyes.
Layla stared at him for a moment, glaring at his sleeping form with cold eyes for just a little too long. But when the man didn’t move nor did wake and when she didn’t have enough desire to pull the gun out and shoot him, she opted to turn around and let him be. There’s never anything wrong with having an extra set of hands around.
She looked down to her phone, “...It’d be bad if I phoned at an inconvenient time.” She whispered to herself, walking over towards a large, comfortable looking chair with fluffed up pillows, flopping down on it and placing the phone nearby. Reaching for a remote and turning the TV on for now, a documentary about the 30 year long rainstorm in Hawaii was being broadcasted. It was better than nothing so she let it play while she zoned out, waiting for when that phone would ring.
----
Layla was the only one chilling out that morning.
It was the day after the Song Family manor was lit on fire and its leader was murdered. A few strings were pulled to keep the news of his death quiet, but news of the arson had spread all over the island before anyone could stop it. It was the biggest crime this year, one that filled the hearts of the public with questions.
“Why are the police being silent about this?”
“Who did it? Why would someone attack the biggest crime lord there is?”
“Do you think it was someone with pyrokinesis? Someone with a superpower?”
“How are the Songs going to retaliate?”
“Forget the Songs, what are the police going to do? If this leads to a gang war we’re going to need to get out of here!”
“...What can we do!?”
News of Estronius’ death, of Nicole’s disappearance hadn’t yet reached most people, those who knew were solely limited to a few of the more respected and influential members of the Song Family.
Benevici, however, was aware of this, despite not being respected or influential. He stood in front of the manor, which was now extinguished. It was mostly intact, but even from here he could see the damage. A few windows were shattered and the entrance itself was a charred pile of ash. It looked like the first floor had sustained the most damage. He couldn’t help but notice that there weren’t any police officers around. No investigation being done yet. It was no wonder really, those guys were probably celebrating.
He wasn’t wearing his sapphire brooch anymore, but he still had the alto-clef pin on his hat. He wasn’t going to remove that anytime soon, not even if he was being held at gunpoint and threatened with execution.
The man sighed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a dark black flip phone, flipping it open and going through the contact list. He still hadn’t removed his ex’s number.
“...Maybe...” He briefly considered it and then decided to give it a shot. Maybe she’d pick up? He listened to the dial up tone, it sounded like it was continuously rising but he knew it was just the same sound over and over again. 3, 4, 5 times... then she answered.
“What do you want, Ben!?” His ex-‘s voice came through. Harsh, furious... not what he wanted.
“...Anna, listen.”
“NO, you listen to me, I want nothing to do with you, do you get that, dickhead!?”
“...My brother’s dead.”
“...Oh.”
“Yeah.” Benevici nodded, grey eyes downcast.
“I... I heard about the house being set on fire. But I didn’t know he was dead.”
His eyes lit up, her tone was sympathetic, no trace of that anger anymore, he couldn’t stop the edges of his lips from smiling. He swallowed his spit then responded. “...Can you do me a favour and not tell anyone else about this?”
“...Why are you talking to me again, Ben? I made it clear that I wanted nothing to do with that organization you’re in.”
“I don’t care about the family, Anna. All I care about is you, me and our child, our family.” He exclaimed,
“Is that why you told me? I should’ve known...” Her voice came through harsh and he immediately knew he said the wrong thing.
“Anna, no, wait! It’s not like-”
“Don’t call me again.” She hung up before he could respond. He let out a grunt of rage gripping his phone with enough strength to shatter the keypad before quickly catching itself, shoving the phone back into his pocket.
“Dumb bitch.” He spat, glaring up at the manor.
Why couldn’t it have burnt to the ground completely?
“Because someone called the fire department.” A voice from behind answered his question. He spun around to see Charlotte of all people standing at the front gate, still tapping away at her phone, wearing a grey hoodie with black lining and wolf ears over a more reasonable shirt and skirt than the ones she had been wearing last night, although apart from length they looked more or less the same in terms of design. She wasn’t wearing any makeup. Her parents were standing nearby, accompanied by a handful of men and women in rubber gloves and scrubs. A few of them were armed.
“It was a rhetorical question, honey.” Her mother told her, placing one of her hands on her daughters shoulder. The other held a suitcase with a icon of a magnifying glass on it. As always, the father was standing silently at the back, enjoying a cigar.
“...Excuse me?” Benevici asked, scowling at them. “Why are you here?”
“There’s no need to get pissy, Benny.” The woman said, walking forward and closing the distance between them. The fist holding the suitcase was trembling, resisting the urge to slap him right then and there. “Your sister asked us to watch over the scene, make sure nobody tries anything.”
“Don’t test me, Whitney.” Benevici snarled. She simply turned her nose up at him, despite him being almost twice her height. She walked past him, completely unafraid.
“Oh yeah, one last thing: Suzy wanted the first person to find you to tell you that you should stay in town for a while, just until we find the bastard who did this. Just in case.” She gave him a ever-so-slight grimace before heading through the ash doorway, taking great care not to disturb the piles of ash and wood.
The father walked up next, giving Benevici a curt nod that the man was too angry to return as he followed his wife into the house. The majority of the people in scrubs followed after them but a few remained outside with Charlotte, who hadn’t moved in the slightest.
“...So, what are you doing here? You’re a bit young to be watching over a crime scene, aren’t you?” Benevici asked her.
“Yeah.” Charlotte answered, tapping at her phone.
“No, that’s not the question I wanted answered. Why’d your parents bring you here? For that matter why are both of them here?”
“Why don’t you ask my mother.” Charlotte asked him in turn.
“Please stop distracting her.” One of the men in scrubs behind her intervened.
Charlotte shook her head, looking up from her phone for just a second. “No, please. Keep distracting me. That’ll make it easier for you to get back in the family’s good graces.”
“H-Hey, what do you know about good graces, punk?” Benevici asked her.
“Why don’t you tell me.” Charlotte frowned, turning around to the people behind her. “He didn’t kill his brother.”
Benevici blinked, his heart skipping a beat for a moment.
Where’d she get that from?“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Charlotte smirked at him with a pair of furrowed brown eyebrows, before turning back to the people behind her. “Tell Suzy he’s here, will you? I’m gonna go round back. ”
“WH- Why is she telling you all what to do!?” Benevici asked.
“Suzy’s orders.” One of the men in scrubs explained, as a few followed Charlotte around the side of the house. “So please, we’re not going to tell you to leave but at least don’t distract the investigation.”
“I-...” Benevici stepped back. “... So, Suzy’s in charge now, huh?”
A bee flew into view, inspecting a patch of dahlia’s near the gate.
“...Unlike you, she’s pretty torn up that her brother has died.” The man explained. “We’re here to stop the person who did this from interfering with the scene while doing our own investigation of the scene. The Summers’ are here because of their abilities. Suzy feels they’ll be most useful during the investigation.”
“And she trusts them?” Benevici asked.
“Mr. Song, you’re aware that you are highly suspicious, are you not?” The man responded, “Right now, you’re the prime suspect. So If I were you I’d keep my mouth shut for a little while.”
A vein in Benevici’s forehead throbbed, it felt like his eye was going to explode from rage alone. “You-... I’m Estronius’s brother, your boss’s brother! You can’t talk to me like that!”
“I can and I will. You made it clear that you hold no love for him, so you don’t get to play that card. I was honoured to be working for him, and you spit on his demise like this? You’re lucky your sister wants you alive or I’d put a bullet between your eyes for even having the gall to show your face here!” With that, the man pushed himself past Benevici, following after Charlotte. He stopped after a few steps and turned to look at him. “You might as well stay where we can keep an eye on you while you’re here... You there, If he tries to leave go straight for his knees!” He called out to the men at the front gate, who all nodded.
Benevici scowled at them, as those who remained pulled their guns out. Readying themselves to shoot at a moment’s notice. Benevici glared at them... and then down at the bee, flying away from one set of Dahlia’s and making its way to the set mirroring it on the other end of the garden. Staring at it, filled with anger that couldn’t be expressed, he wanted to squash that insect before it could reach the flowers... but he didn’t. The bee made its way to the rest of the plants completely untouched, only looked at it with scorn that wasn’t meant for it in the first place.
...
Standing in the burnt up foyer, Whitney stood alone with a phone to her ear. It dialled once, then twice, before being answered.
“Already?” Suzy’s voice came through.
“Benevici’s here, at the mansion.” Whitney said, straight and to the point. She pulled her sunglasses off, revealing a set of tear-filled black eyes, filled with rage and sadness. “And he definitely had something to do with the fire.”
----
Nicole scoffed as the scene transitioned. ----
Suzy stood in a morgue with a hand to her ear-piece, flanked by her personal armed guards, one to the left and one to the right. Another two guarding the entrance. “...I thought so.”
She could see the silhouettes of the coroner inspecting her brother’s body behind the curtain and that of the bed his corpse was laying on. Whether because the coroner wanted privacy or didn’t want Suzy to watch as they opened up her brother she wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter as long as it was done and she had her brother’s autopsy as soon as possible.
“I... he was using Estronius’s death for pity points, trying to get back with his ex over the phone!” Whitney’s voice came through loud and clear. Suzy only rolled her eyes.
“...Typical.” Suzy muttered, watching the movements of the coroner through the curtain as she rolled her eyes.
“I told him what you said, to stay in town for the time being, he hasn’t left the mansion yet either. Honestly, I don’t even know what he was doing here.” Whitney spoke,
“If I were to wager, I’d say he wanted to see what evidence was left behind.” Suzy suggested. “He heard the police hadn’t gotten involved yet and decided this would be the chance to do something.”
As she spoke, she raised a eyebrow towards the guard to her left, who stepped forwards and went to inspect the coroner, who jumped back.
“H-Hey, you can’t come in here! I’m busy!”
“The boss wants to know how long this will take.”
“2 hours, maybe 4 for the examination of the body. After that I can’t say for sure!” The coroner explained.
“Give us a number.”
“L-Look, just come back tomorrow and leave me to my work for today, how about that?”
The guard looked over to Suzy, who nodded, before heading back to her side.
The coroner peered over at them from behind the curtain, “C-Can you leave me to my work now? You have my word I’ll send the autopsy straight to Mr. Takada when I’m done with it!”
“...Sounds good.” Suzy nodded, turning around and gesturing towards the door. “Let’s get out of here, boys. The rest of you stay here in case some nosey bastard comes in.”
The coroner let out a sigh of relief as they left him to his duties. Suzy and the two guards on either side of her left through the door and out into the hallway of the hospital, only occupied by another two of the Song Family’s men, standing either side of the door to the morgue, just in case.
Suzy kept her finger to her ear, walking forwards as Whitney continued. “So, what should we do about him?”
“Are the dudes keeping an eye on him?” Suzy asked.
“Yes, they are. I can see some watching him right now. He still hasn’t left the front garden.” Whitney said.
“Then keep him there, if you can. But don’t let him distract you from what I sent you there to do, Miss Summers.” Suzy said.
“Of course...I want to find the people who did this to Estronius just as much as you do, Suzy.” Whitney spoke, “He... This world isn’t kind to people like me, or like my family. I wasn’t even alive back then, but people like me were always blamed for what Athena did. You haven’t been here for too long, and this was old news before you showed up but... he didn’t believe any of that. He saw the reality of the situation and kept us safe from everyone who wanted an excuse to hurt us.” Her voice continued to crack as she kept going, Suzy could hear the sobs. “He... people see him as just a crime lord, but they ignore how much he helped all of the members of the family... and we’re going to pay him back. ”
Suzy stared ahead, “We are.” She agreed. “And we’re going to pay the person who did this to him back as well.”
“...You’re right, we are.”
“That’s all for now Miss Summers, keep me updated.”
“I will... But one thing, why are you calling me Miss Summers? That’s my maiden name, I’m Mrs Goode now and have been since long before you showed up. ”
“...Well, Summers is such a nice surname, isn’t it? And if I say Miss Goode, it might get confusing whether I’m talking about you or your daughter.” It was a reach, and she knew it. “Look, I’ll call you what I want, okay?”
“...Sure.” Whitney complied. “I don’t really mind either way, I was just curious.”
“Great, glad we understand each other. I’ll be right over to see what my brother’s been up to.”
Suzy pressed a button on her ear-piece and communication with Whitney was cut off, just as they reached the exit. Stepping out into the parking lot.
First, she looked both ways to see if the coast was clear, noticing an elderly woman being escorted to her car but a younger lady in the distance, but nobody else. It was fine. She made her way towards her car and hopped into the passenger seat, Vincent already waiting inside at the drivers wheel. Her guards took up the back seats entirely.
“So. How’d it go?” Vincent asked.
“No time for questions Vince, we’re heading back to the mansion now.” Suzy told him. He put his foot to the pedal and immediately began driving as she leaned back into her seat.
Suzy pressed a button on her earpiece and said “Call Layla.” it dialled for half a tone before immediately being picked up as the car made its way out of the parking lot and onto the road.
“Hello?” Layla’s voice came through loud and clear.
Vincent winced, “Gosh, turn that down will you?” He asked, Suzy complied, fiddling with the volume dial as she spoke.
“Hey, where are you right now?” Suzy asked, pressing a foot against the windscreen as she made herself comfortable.
“I...”
“Come on, it’s safe Layla, no one’s listening in. This is a safe connection, free from whatever eavesdropping bugs you can imagine.” Suzy told her,
“I... Alright, I’m at the Shell Beach. The resort.” Layla told her.
“Really? Down uh...” She leaning forward to turn her GPS on and typing, quickly receiving a couple of hits across the globe. A couple of towns in Augustus and a few actual beaches, but only one on Queens Island conveniently enough. “Okay, we’ve got you.” She said. “Is Nicole with you?”
Layla answered “And the man Estronius sent to chauffeur us to safety.”
Vincent rolled his eyes as Suzy turned the GSP back off.
“Right, right, Estronius, so, about Estronius, we can confirm... that he died.” Suzy confirmed, going back to leaning against the chair as Vincent swerved, turning a corner more recklessly than any pedestrians nearby would’ve liked.
“Asshole!” A old man who narrowly avoided getting hit by a car yelled out to him as they turned another corner.
“What was that?” Layla asked.
“Nothing.” Suzy told her. “Anyway, Estronius is dead, and nobody else knows where you and Nicole are so... you should stay there until further notice.”
“Are you coming here?”
Coming up to a split in the road, Vincent turned left, driving up a hill.
“No, no. We’ve got something else to check on first.” Suzy said. “You sit tight for now, okay? Don’t go anywhere without my say so.”
“...Alright.”
Suzy noticed the hesitation, but chose not to comment on it, instead repeating her answer “Alright.” and cutting off communication with her as well.
“...What now, Suzy?” Vincent asked her, not willing to let this drive continue in silence.
“Now, we find out what the hell that brother of mine was thinking.” Suzy decided.
“You want to go to the mansion, then?”
Suzy looked over to the driver like he was braindead. “Hu-doy!”
“I thought it was a manor.” One of the bodyguards at the back spoke up.
“Same thing.” Suzy told him.
“I think a manor’s actually like, a mansion with a large plot of land attached while a mansion can just be in a street somewhere.” Vincent suggested.
“Look, Vince. I love you, but that is the least relevant thing you’ve ever said.” Suzy told him. “My brother is dead, I don’t care about the specific terminology we should use to talk about his house, there’s far more important shit going on here.”
For a moment, silence... Vincent turned and took another left, driving on a bridge out of the city towards a small section of grassland.
“You just wanted a excuse to swear, didn’t you?” Vincent smiled, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes.
Suzy averted her gaze, “Oh, like you weren’t fucking setting me up for it.” She scoffed, folding her arms, a small hint of a smile at the corners of her mouth as they turned again, going past a shabby old restaurant and a small set of buildings, built a distance apart from each other but all connected via a red string wrapped around them all. Topped off by a bench on top of the hill, she could see a teenage couple sitting at the bench and looking at the view of the city, but what had heard Suzy’s ire was the sign at the very front, ‘Peacock Hill- in memory of Nancy Peacock, aka Hera.’
“...Girl dies and they name a hill after her.” Suzy frowned, glaring at the sign and the red string. “That’s not something worth celebrating like this.”
“It’s not celebration.” Vincent explained as they drove around it, a upcoming stretch of city in plain sight. “It’s like, remembering the people that were lost in tragedies. They do this all the time.”
“Oh, now you’re just bullshitting me, some assholes saw they had an opportunity to rebrand fucking make-out point with a dead woman’s name and disguised it as a place to remember the dead. Honestly, it annoys me every time I see it. I bet she would’ve hated that hill!”
“...I think you’re right about that much.” Vincent commented. “The grave, the funeral, whatever her family did in their home would’ve been enough. Most relationships made on that hill likely won’t last too long anyway, even with Hera watching over them.”
“Honestly, things like that are just total bullshit. This whole place just lets its past define it, it’s pathetic. These people need to learn to let go.” Suzy grimaced, her focus went from the scenery around her to her own reflection. There were tears in her eyes, her forehead turned a bright red as she brought a sleeve up and began to violently rub them away. “Just accepting the shit and not doing anything about it, m-making all these groups and sights in some attempt to comfort yourself with misery and just accept that, these people just need to get on with it and stop feeling so sorry for themselves all the time. This shit, death, is natural, h-happens all the time...”
Vincent didn’t respond to that, simply keeping his eyes on the road and carrying on. Suzy eventually rubbed her eyes so much they almost turned red, having failed to hide her tears from him. Suzy leaned back in her chair, before putting her hands back to her forehead.
“...Fuck, couldn’t we have taken a faster route?” Suzy asked, just as the mansion on the edge of town finally came into sight. Nothing but trees behind it and nothing but a slightly longer than average walk from the road separating it from the rest of the town, but that wasn’t the entrance they wanted to take.
“The mansion is literally right there.” Vincent told her, driving off the road and into the trees. Out of sight from anyone who may have been watching them.
----
Charlotte was standing around in the garden. It was half burnt to fuck and half untouched. Everything between the small lake and the house itself was littered with numerous patches of ash or dirt where everything had burned away but everything behind it, leading on into the trees that were part of the estate were untouched. A few men in rubber gloves had even made their way into the garden maze to see if anything was inside, others were inspecting the porch or the ground for any evidence.
She looked clearly out of place, everyone else here was doing their investigations, a group were gathered around what seemed to be footprints in the dirt, even the ones getting lost in the maze and the woods in the distance were checking to see if someone could’ve entered or escaped this way. But she was just sitting there on her phone, unable to beat her previous high score in snake.
“Ugh...” She grunted as she got a game over. “This is useless. I shouldn’t even be here.”
Nobody responded to her, so she merely rolled her eyes at them and leaned against the porch. Staring down at it...
“...Suzy?” One of the Men asked, catching her attention.
“...Wait, what?” Charlotte looked up from her phone, wide-eyed, as Suzy Song and Vincent walked out of the forest. “...Su- What are you on doing here?” She asked, running up to them as they walked past the hedge-maze.
“I heard my brother was here, figured I’d see what he was thinking showing his face here.” Suzy said.
Charlotte raised a brow, looking back at the direction they walked in from. “So you came in through the forest?-... Oh.”
“Yeah, secret passages all over. I thought you’d know about that one.” Vincent blinked, leaning against the hedge.
“Well, now I do.” Charlotte said, looking back down to her phone and scrolling through the games on it, trying to find something that wasn’t snake. She let out a grunt and tapped at the ground with her shoe. “It’s not like I can just find things by standing around. I’m not a miracle worker, I’m 15. If nobody here knows anything I’m not going to find anything either.”
Suzy leaned forwards, her necklace dangling down into the air between her torso and the scorched dirt. “Well, then you can try Benevici if you want? I heard from your mother that he was somewhere around here.”
“That loser? He doesn’t know anything.” Charlotte turned away.
“...He doesn’t?”
“He didn’t know the guy was dead until like, this morning.” Charlotte stated.
“Look, dear.” Suzy said, frowning as she placed a hand on Charlotte’s shoulder, to the teenager’s annoyance. “Your mother herself told us that Benny here definitely had something to do with the fire. Now you’re here telling us he didn’t know his own brother was dead? Are you sure you’re not misinterpreting something?”
Charlotte stepped away from Suzy, looking back to the others here doing their more forensic investigations before turning back to face her, deliberately looking towards her phone. “Look, just because you’re eager to find an easy mark to pin this on doesn’t mean I’m going to start lying to help you.” She explained, failing to hide her annoyance behind a monotonous drone.
“...Charlotte. Where’d you get that idea?” Suzy asked her. “I just want to make sure you’re right about this. Look, if he’s still in the front garden, why don’t you go back and check again?”
“You could ask my Mum.” Charlotte suggested. “I’ve got lots of nothing to do right here.”
“Look, kid. We’re not going to ask you to make anything up. But if you do find something out, you will tell us exactly what you see, right?” Vincent asked.
Charlotte shrugged, turning away and, with lack of any other games on her phone, going back to playing snake. “Sure.”
At that moment, a set of guys ran back out from the maze, carrying out a set of plastic bags, one containing an open box and the other a umbrella.
“M-Miss Suzy?” The man at the front of the crew asked, clutching the large bag with the umbrella in it. “N-nobody told me you’d be coming here.”
“Short notice, what’s that?” Suzy asked, eyes running over it.
“It’s a umbrella, ma’am. We found it in the pagoda near the maze.” The Man said, holding it out for her to inspect.
Suzy leaned over, looking over it just for a moment before looking to Charlotte. “Charlotte, dear, do you mind looking at this for a bit? I’ve got a brother to catch up with.”
Not even looking at her, Charlotte nodded again. “Sure.”
“Come on, Vince. Let’s see what Benny has to say for himself.” Suzy smiled as she made her way around the house. Charlotte stared at the back of her head as she and Vincent both vanished from her sight.
“Ugh.” Charlotte rolled her eyes.
As for Suzy and Vincent, they reached Benevici in a relatively short amount of time. The man was still standing at the entrance, staring up at the manor while accompanied by a fair few of Suzy’s men, notably a whole lot who were armed. He was rubbing at his temple like it was aching something fierce. Suzy made sure she had a fittingly tense expression as she walked into view. Vincent made no such effort.
“At ease, everyone.” Suzy told them as she walked into view, they heeded her. Benevici grimaced at the mere sight of her.
“God, you’re here too?” Benevici grumbled.
“Our brother died.” Suzy glowered up at him. “Why shouldn’t I be here?”
“Psh.” He spat, before looking behind him to gauge her grunts, upon deeming the situation safe enough, he looked back down at Suzy. “Don’t pretend to care about him, Suzy. You’ve hated both of us since the day you were born.”
“We all hated each other, brother. Don’t tell me things I already know, but sometimes, there are things more important than 'who cares about who' at stake. Look, I’m gonna be blunt, Whitney told me you knew something about the fire. I know no Summers would ever lie to me, so what do you know about it?” Suzy prodded him in the chest with her pointer finger.
Benevici looked at his younger sister, then at the man behind her staring at him dispassionately, but without the hatred his sister was glaring at him with. He of course, also was keeping in mind the armed men behind him, so he let out a sigh, frowning. “...Do you mind if we talk about this privately? Just the two of us?”
Suzy looked him up and down. “...Yeah, let’s do that. Just me and you, inside?”
“...Inside is good.” Benevici nodded.
Suzy turned on her heels, facing Vincent “You go back to check on Charlotte’s investigation outside. The rest of you keep watch out here.” She said, marching on into the manor as she spoke. Benevici following after her slowly with a grim expression on his face, hands balled into fists as per usual.
That same bee from earlier flew up from the plants. Vincent looked over to it, watching as it flew up into the sky and quickly buzzed out of sight.
As soon as it was gone, some of the men from the garden ran in, accompanied by Charlotte.
“Boss! Boss!” The guys all called out, only to not see Suzy anyway, after looking around for a moment one of them turned to Vincent. “Where’s Suzy? It’s urgent!”
“Why? What is it?” Vincent asked.
“The umbrella was Nicole’s, Charlotte pulled through, and we know how she vanished!”
That made the man’s eyes go wide, “Y-...You do?” Vincent asked.
Charlotte looked up briefly, still engrossed in her game to truly participate in this conversation. “That’s what he said.”
“So- I-, no-“ He regained himself, put a hand to his chest and looked straight at them. “Tell me. What happened to Nicole?” Vincent asked.
“Well, we only got how they left. Not where they went, but we have a lead.” One of the men said, “Charlotte, would you mind explaining?”
Charlotte tapped at her phone for a moment. “Fine, I’ll tell you, since you clearly don’t know.” She said, with an unmistakably sarcastic tone.
Vincent stared back at her, as though he didn’t know what she was insinuating.
----
A staff member rung the bell for the luxury suite Layla and co were staying in, with a tray in their hands. 3 Plates, strawberry crepes, lemon and sugar crepes, then a cheese and ham omelette, and 3 cups, milk coffee, green tea and juice respectively.
A few seconds passed and they pressed the button again. “Room service!” The neat bellboy called out again. “Room service for the Stone’s?” This time Mills opened the door, with a clearly strained expression.
“Ah, sorry, I had to get dressed.” Mills told the guy, stretching his arms as he leaned against the doorframe, almost completely blocking the bellboy’s view of the interior of the suite. “Didn’t want to frighten the staff by answering the door in my underwear, you feel me?”
“No, no, sir. I totally feel you.” The man nodded, holding the tray out for him to take.
“Because, like, my... my wife, Mrs... um, Stone, is still sleeping, so I didn’t want to wake her. But I figured it’d be nice to surprise the family with breakfast in bed when they do wake up.”
“Yes, sir, I completely understand. The tray...?” The bellboy suggested, his smile gradually turning more and more harrowed with each passing second.
“I heard somewhere that, uh, giving a child coffee was bad for their health, so I opted to go for the safer route and just order some juice for her.” Mills explained.
Unable to smile anymore, the bellboy grimaced at the man. “Sir, take the damn tray before my arms fall off.”
“OH!” Mills exclaimed, “Right, of course.” He leaned forwards and took the tray from the bellboys hands. “Sorry man!”
“Don’t worry about it sir, you have a good stay.” The bellboy smiled, closing the door before Mills could and getting out of there before the conversation could continue.
With the bellboy gone, Mills turned around to look over at Layla, who was sitting on the chair in front of the tv with her phone in her hands, staring intently at it. Eventually she turned her head to look at him, it was then that he decided he’d walk over to her and place the tray down on the table in front of her.
“...Yo, Layla. Uh... ‘The Stone family’?” Mills asked, sitting down next to her.
“A man, a woman and a child, people would assume we were a family anyway, wouldn’t they? So I felt it was the best cover story to go with.” Layla explained, tilting her head and smiling at him slightly. “Unless you have a problem with it?”
“Oh, no.” Mills looked away, putting his hands behind his head and leaning against the chair. Staring at the documentary on TV specifically so he could look away from her. “I- uh, I don’t have a problem with it at all.”
Layla let out a small laugh, before giving him a more serious glance. “Good, but don’t get any ideas okay? It’s just a cover story, don’t use it as an excuse to do anything gross.”
“Oh! No, no, I wouldn’t! I wouldn’t do anything like that, I mean... You’re like, the boss’s girlfriend, aren’t you?” Mills exclaimed, going a little red in the face.
Layla’s face fell, “...In a sense.”
Mills stared at her, “You don’t look too happy to be saying that.”
“Well, when the head of a massive criminal organization takes an interest in you personally, there’s not really much you can do about it, is there?” Layla asked.
Mills blanked, “You don’t mean that.”
“...No, not really.” Layla said, “He’s very much a typical gentleman, he sends a lot of gifts and he’s been good for business as well, had a lot more success with my jewellery store since getting to know him... he’s trying to get me to move in with him as well. One time he even invited me to the annual ball at St James... we were all over the tabloids the next day.” She cast a glance over to the bedroom she had been staying in, the one Nicole was still asleep in. “...Nicole really loves him. I suppose any child would if they had him for their guardian.”
“Guardian?”
“Like, legal guardian, not whatever that Adam guy was.” Layla frowned.
“No, yeah, I totally get you.” Mills nodded. “I... uh.” He reached into his trousers and rummaged through them, pulling out a phone that seemed way too small for his hands. “Do you mind if I phone my kids? Let them know it’ll be a while before I come home?”
“You’ve got kids?” Layla asked him.
Mills nodded, “Yeah, twins. My uh... My girl didn’t want to have kids. She ran off and let me with two newborn infants. That’s how I ended up in this bizz actually, took a job for the sake of a pay check when nobody else was willing to hire me and I had two girls I couldn’t feed, then I kept doing it because, hell, the pay is good.”
Layla leaned a bit closer to him. “Why would no one hire you?”
“Past criminal record, you know how it is.” Mills told her,
“I... I haven’t experienced that, personally.” Layla said. “I’ve been pretty good at getting away with things. But I don’t think I’ve done much that would get on my permanent record.”
“Being with the Song’s means even if you did it wouldn’t matter, I haven’t been arrested for anything since I started working for them but I’m pretty sure everyone who knows I’m working for them shits their pants whenever they see me.” Mills grinned. “Now, if you don’t mind... I’m gonna phone my daughters real quick. Let them know I’m okay.”
Layla nodded her head in response, helping herself to the coffee. He ran through his contact list before phoning a number and leaning back into the chair.
“...Oh, hey. did I wake you up? Sorry dear... No, I won’t be back for a while. I’m sorry, works gotten pretty busy so I couldn’t come home last night. I know I couldn’t come home last night either, and I’m sorry. But when I do get back, I’m going to take you to that theme park you always wanted to go to, doesn’t that sound nice?”
Layla watched him, with her coffee to her mouth. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed movement from her bedroom, the door opening just a smidgeon. A dark green eye staring out at the two from inside it, Nicole had woken up.
“If you really need it, there’s some money behind the microwave, but don’t take anything out of my bank account and only spend it if you absolutely have to. There’s snacks and microwaveable dinners if you need them. Okay, tell your sister I said I love her. Yes, I love you too. Alright, I promise I’ll try to see you tonight, but please don’t be disappointed if I can’t. Love you.” He said, hanging up just as Nicole opened up the door.
“Oh, Nicole!” Layla lit up like an automatic light. “Good morning sweetie.”
Nicole stood in the middle of the doorway, rubbing at one of her eyes sleepily. She had quite a bedhead going on. “Where are we?”
“Uh...” Mills’ mouth hung open like a brainless fish, going blank for a moment.
“Well, your uncle wanted you to be in a safe place, remember?” Layla asked. “So I brought you here, where the people that did that to your uncles house wouldn’t be able to find you, it was what he wanted remember?”
“Is...” She paused, “Is he okay? Is my uncle... the house was on fire!”
“...We haven’t heard back from him yet.” Layla told her, with a sympathetic expression. “But it’s all going to be okay, I can promise you that.”
“I... Okay.” Nicole nodded, looking down at the floor for a moment.
Layla looked down at the tray for a moment, before smiling at Nicole again. “...Here, do you want some crepes? I got crepes with lemon and crepes with strawberries. You can take your pick.”
“...I like strawberries.” Nicole plodded up to the table and grabbed one of the plates before sitting to Layla’s left, looking down at the crepes as she pulled a strawberry out of it and started nibbling on that.
“Very well, I’ll tell you a secret. I wanted the lemon ones anyway.” Layla smiled at Nicole, who gave her a small, weak smile in response. Mills looked at the two with glazed over eyes.
The man leaned away from the chair, looking at Nicole as she nibbled on the fruit. “Hey, so... Nicole?”
“Hm?” Nicole acknowledged him, but didn’t look at him.
As Mills looked at the child, he found his desire to continue his line of thought slowly fading away, “...Never mind. Enjoy your strawberries, kid.”
“Okay, I will.”
----
Day turned to noon; the sun seemed to shine even brighter, like that burning ball of gas in the sky was determined to stop anyone outside from seeing.
That was the excuse Benevici gave when he closed the curtains in the mostly intact living room at least. Beyond a small bit of carpet near the door and a bit of damage to the window, this particularly large lounge had survived the fire without much of anything happening to it. Which meant it was a safe place for them to have their conversation without Whitney or any of the other investigators staring at them instead of doing their jobs.
But now, the conversation was nearing its end. The two sat on separate chairs, Suzy lying on her side on one of the longer coaches and Benevici with his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands on a corner chair. A sapphire star brooch and emerald earring both placed on the table the two were looking at instead of each other.
The conversation had gradually declined as the two had their discussion, now it was barely keeping itself going.
“...I get it.” Suzy admitted, “But that’s still fucked up.”
“Like you would have done any different.” Benevici scowled. “Besides, I’m still not the one who killed him. I didn’t want him to die, I just wanted him to regret treating me like this.”
“Well, now he can’t.” Suzy frowned. “Nor can anyone else.”
“...You don’t have to pretend like you liked him either. I know you, you hated him even more than I did.” Benevici grimaced.
“You were just jealous because he was going to be king.” Suzy rolled onto her side. “...That’s all any of this was about.”
“Then we came here, and he became king. Sure, the bastard called it something else, but he might as well have been a king. He’d been looking for a single excuse to kick me out since this whole thing started and you were even more eager than he was to do it.” Benevici’s grip on his face tightened, pulling at his cheeks.
“...Makes me wonder why you guys even bothered changing your names, it didn’t stop me from catching up with you.” Suzy commented. “Like, what kind of name even is ‘Estronius’? I can at least buy Benevici as a name, but you’d draw less heads if you stayed with Benedict. Although I guess you got tired of people saying you were just ‘bein’ a dick’, eh?”
“Look, Adam was here. Nemea, currently is here. We weren’t going to let our second chance get ruined by those guys so we had to do something to stop them from making the connections. It’s easier to just have the same last name and a passing resemblance than have the same full name and a complete resemblance to two forgotten princes.” Benevici told her.
“Nobody knows about that shit anymore, it’s fine. I’m still Suzanne and nobody gives a toss about that.” Suzy waved it aside. “Besides, that shit, those kingdoms, it doesn’t matter anymore. That Adam guy died for completely different reasons and Nemea hasn’t shown herself here once, those two aren’t a part of this equation at all.”
“Well,
Nemea was before you showed up, alright!?” Benevici snapped, slamming his fists onto the table.
She leaned back, briefly intimidated. It wasn’t hard to be, with the eldest sibling gone he was the tallest being in the area by miles.
Benevici raised an eyebrow at her, sitting back in his chair. “...Don’t think I’ve forgotten how you were acting last night.”
Suzy sighed, sitting up properly, looking back down to the two stars on the table. “...”
“The truth is, we’ve always just been at each other’s throats since day one. It doesn’t matter what we call each other or where we are, that’s never changed.” Benevici grinned, leaning back. “I don’t even see why you’re pretending. I know you want to shoot me square between the eyes right now, and I know you want me to be the one who killed the guy so you have an excuse to do it. Just like he used that little mistake as a excuse to justify him kicking me out of his life.”
“And you used that as an excuse for dousing his front porch in gasoline.” Suzy snapped back, smirking. “It remains the same, bro. You should just get out of town.”
“...Really? You’re not going to shoot me right now?” Benevici asked. “Make a big show of it before you take over everything the way you’ve always wanted to?”
“Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night. Just get out of town because I finish my business here. Maybe go to that place your brother was kind enough to sort out for you before you did the most short-sighted thing you could’ve ever done.” Suzy rolled her eyes, taking her earring of the table and moving to re-attach it.
Benevici stared at her for a moment and then stood up. He reached into his pockets... then sighed. The entire place was surrounded by people who were on her side. He knew if he attacked her right now he wasn’t getting out of here unscathed either. “...This was a mistake.” He muttered, turning and heading out of the lounge through the door into the foyer, making his exit.
As he left, Vincent, Charlotte and a fair few of the low-ranked workers walked in. “So, how’d it go?” Vincent asked, not even acknowledging Benevici as he left through the front door.
“Great.” Suzy responded, without any real feeling to it. “What’ve you got?”
“We need Layla’s phone number.” Charlotte said.
“Layla?”
“Charlotte and the guys looked at the umbrella they found in the maze, she saw that Layla took the umbrella with her shortly after the meeting ended when all of us were either leaving or talking amongst ourselves. They went into the centre of the maze for a while, then left to see the house on fire.” Vincent said.
“You forgot the phone call.” Charlotte looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
“Phone call...?” Suzy raised a eyebrow, looking at all of the people watching the conversation, nobody of importance beyond these three but still a fair amount, before directing her attention to Vincent.
“Right. Charlotte says that Layla left for a moment to take a phone call before coming back and then taking Nicole out of the maze, then they saw it was on fire.” Vincent explained, going into further detail before being distracted by the sound of boots rushing down the stairs.
“Suzy, Suzy! I found something!” Whitney called out, as she and her husband both barrelled down the stairs and into the crowd at the door to the lounge.
“What-? What is it!?” Suzy asked, jumping up to her feet, becoming increasingly annoyed by the crowd she let out a shout. “Heavens’ sake people, make room for her!”
They obliged and stopped huddling like a group of fans at the front row of a concert, spreading out so everyone could breathe and Whitney could make her way to the table. She slammed a phone down on the table, a somewhat old model, but one with a recorded call function.
“This is Estronius’ phone. I found it hidden under the carpet upstairs, in the upstairs library.” Whitney said.
“That’s the room with the broken window.” One of the men said.
“The one the boss was found in...” Another added.
“It’s got a recorded call function. It doesn’t say who the calls are with on the screen, but it’s got two phone calls saved on it and I took the liberty of listening through them, one with a getaway driver who’s worked for us for a while named Mills Parks, nobody that noteworthy... and the other was with Layla and Nicole.” Whitney explained. “He told Mr. Parks to stay with them and drop them off at a small motel on the edge of town.”
“...But they’re not there, are they?” Suzy asked.
“I’ve already phoned the place, after I searched online for the number, turns out the receptionist there is on our payroll so they were more than obliging, but they said nobody showed up that night at all, so Layla, Nicole and Mills didn’t go where Estronius wanted them at all.” Whitney’s husband said. Suzy almost had to lean back, she never really hard the guy speak before.
“So... the question is, where did they go?” Whitney asked, “And... why didn’t they go the obvious place?”
“Oh, come on!” Charlotte exclaimed, grabbing the phone from the table and pressing a button. “Just phone ‘em and ask!”
Suzy reached into her pocket, tilting her head and adjusting her posture as she pushed herself against the chair, waiting to see what happened.
----
Two notifications at once.
Before Layla could even begin her crepes, she got a text on her phone, followed immediately by a ringing. Layla picked her phone up off the table, but it was too late.
“It’s my uncle!” Nicole exclaimed joyously, latching onto Layla’s waist as she looked at the screen.
Someone was calling her from Estronius’s phone... but that wasn’t the end of it. There was a text notification at the very stop of the screen.
‘dont answer’Layla seized up, giving Nicole the perfect chance to press the answer button before Layla had a chance to stop her.
----
“Uncle!” Nicole’s voice rang out through the phone, Suzy paled, Charlotte looked at the woman victoriously.
“See? Just had to phone her.” Charlotte grinned.
“I- yes, congratulations-!” Suzy threw herself up to her feet, climbing over the table and snatching the phone from Charlotte’s hands.
“Oh, okay, just take it.” Charlotte rolled her eyes, before getting glared at by her mother. Her father took a few steps back, Vincent noticing his contemplating expression.
“Nicole!?” Suzy asked, sweat dripping down her neck, “Nicole, where are you?”
“...You’re not Uncle Estronius...” Nicole moaned over the phone, like a child deprived of their favourite toy.
“N-Nicole!” Layla could be heard panicking.
---
Layla snatched the phone out of Nicole’s hands, standing back up. Staring at it with wide, shaking eyes.
“...Nicole?” Suzy called out. “Answer the question!”
“She doesn’t know...” Whitney’s husband could be heard barely, in the background.
“Hey!” Nicole reached up, trying to grab the phone again. “Give it back!”
“It’s my phone, sweetie.” Layla told her, “It’s rude to grab things that aren’t yours.”
“Then why’s Aunt Suzy holding Uncle Estronius’ phone?” Nicole asked, loudly. Mills stood up and decided to get some distance between him and the other two.
----
“...Suzy.” Whitney spoke, “Let me.”
Suzy, visibly having a moment, handed the phone to Whitney.
“...Nicole, dear.” Whitney spoke. “Your uncle was killed last night and you were kidnapped last night. If you tell us where you are we’ll come right over and pick you up.”
“She wasn’t kidnapped!” Layla hissed into the phone, “We got a call from Estronius telling us to go to safety, and we did! He also said not to tell anywhere where we were in case the people that came for him went after her!”
“We checked with the motel he directed you towards but you weren’t there!” Whitney exclaimed. “Stop lying to us!”
----
“...Estronius is dead...?” Nicole stopped for a moment, looking to Layla. “But you said-“
“I’m not lying.” Layla said, through gritted teeth.
“My daughter found your umbrella, she looked at the past and saw what you did, you took Nicole out of the house on purpose didn’t you! It’s not because you wanted to play with her like an aunt would, but so she wouldn’t be in the way when your co-conspirators killed Estronius!”
“I- no- Whitney, you’re wrong about this!” Layla insisted, looking over to the two people she was sharing a hotel room with. Nicole was staring up at her with a listless expression while Mills was standing up, not too far from the door, shaking his head to himself as he turned around.
“No, no, no no...” Mills repeated to himself like a mantra.
“Nicole! Where are you?” Whitney asked.
“...You told me Estronius would be fine!” Nicole yelled,
“Whitney, please, I didn’t have anything to do with it!”
“Then tell us where you are!” Whitney yelled as well, as Nicole picked up the plate of strawberry crepes she had been eating and threw it at Layla, who barely stepped out of the way in time.
“Why’s she saying he’s dead!?” Nicole screamed, going completely red in the face.
“You’re all- you’re all overreacting!” Layla called out, “I- I saw the motel that we were driven to, and I thought we’d be too conspicuous. Mills, he never mentioned that Estronius sent him there, I thought it was just a place! That it’d be fine if we went somewhere else where we’d be safe, if someone came after Nicole- then-!”
“Oh hell no, you’re not getting me wrapped up into this!” Mills exclaimed, pulling at his hair, “I’m just trying to do my job! I- I didn’t even know the boss was dead until just now!”
“But you didn’t tell me Estronius sent you there!” Layla told him,
“You’re not lying, but that’s not the reason you did it.” Whitney spoke as though sneering into the phone. “You can’t hide it from me, I just know you were involved you selfish little gold digger.”
“I- Listen- I- Gold digger?” Layla stammered, as Mills approached and swept the phone out of her hand before pushing her into the wall.
“We’re at the Shell beach resort!” He yelled into it, “Luxury suite on the 6th floor, with a balcony and a bedroom window blocked by the sign with a view of the hills!”
Nicole stared down at Layla, almost stunned at the sudden violence. She didn’t move an inch even when Layla pulled herself back up, pulled the gun out of her belt and smacked him in the back of the head with it. He stumbled, giving her a chance to steal the phone back from him. “Whitney, I didn’t have any part in it! I swear!” Layla yelled, “A-Ask Suzy! Suzy phoned me up earlier- I even told her where I was!”
“Now she’s just lying!” Suzy grimaced, “Turn the phone off, we know where they are and that’s all we need!”
“...We’re coming straight for you, Layla.” Whitney whispered right into the phone, before hanging up.
Layla’s surprise and sheer horror gave Mills a chance to attack again, punching her right in the gut and grabbing the hand with the phone in it, slamming it into the wall.
“NO!” Nicole cried out, going ignored as Layla smacked her knee into his groin, throwing him away and pointing the gun straight at him.
“Not another move!” Layla yelled at him as his head smacked into the table, knocking the plates a bit. “If you do one more thing, I swear I will shoot you, I’ll do it! Right between your eyes!”
Mills remained where he fell, glaring up at her before putting his hands up into the air. Nicole stared at him with wide eyes before looking up to Layla.
“N-Nicole, dear.” Layla stammered, “Can you go into your bedroom for now? I don’t want you to see this.”
Nicole instantly dashed past Layla into the room she fell asleep in that night, vanishing into the bathroom built into the side of the room. Layla backed up before closing the door to the bedroom as well. The latch to lock it was inside the bedroom, but Layla didn’t care to lock it in the first place. She only cared about the gun held in her shaking hand, pointed square at Mills.
“...I’m sorry about this.” Layla shook her head, with downcast eyes.
“You lied to me.” Mills told her, his dark blue eyes widening slightly.
“I didn’t.” Layla told him. “I-... look, he- Listen! Not once did I ever lie to you! I- I didn’t want Estronius to die, I just wanted to make sure Nicole wouldn’t get caught up in it! She wanted to kill Nicole as well!”
“I... she did?” Mills asked.
“You believe me?” Layla asked, lowering her gun slightly.
“If you weren’t lying, which, I don’t know... it doesn’t sound like you are, what am I supposed to do?” Mills asked, lowering his arms as well, since it didn’t look to him like he was in any danger anymore. “I don’t-...”
“Look, it was Suzy.” Layla told him, her shoulders sagging. “Suzy knew Benevici was going to be ex-communicated at the big meeting today, she knew he’d be angry, so she chose today to act so she could blame it on him. She wanted to kill Nicole as well, but I got her out into the maze where she’d be out of the way. If we went to the motel you wanted us to, Suzy would find us easily, track us down and kill her as well, that way she’d be the only person in line to inherit the succession of the business.”
Taking a pause to catch her breath, Layla looked out through the balcony door to the hills and roads below. “...What she’s going to do, what I’d do if I was her, is she’s coming to come here, just her and her co-conspirator, with maybe a couple of other people she wanted out of the way, and she’d kill me- and Nicole- and probably you!” She explained, holding the gun out like she was ready to shoot it through the balcony door itself. Mills slowly pushed himself up from the floor, not making any moves.
“Then- then, she’s going to claim that I killed you and Nicole.” Layla said, turning around. She was now pacing, in a panic. “That’s the kind of person she is... she’s not going to come alone, she knows where we are... do you have a gun on you?”
“I... I’ve got one in the trunk of my car.” Mills told her. “But why are you asking me? You were holding me at gunpoint just a moment ago.”
“I don’t want to stop someone from seeing their children.” Layla told him. “I do want to stop someone from killing a child. Estronius was... he put so much effort into being nice to individuals that it’s easy to ignore the things he did and the things he allowed. But he did, he did and he allowed all of it, everything the family does. It’s not her fault that he’s her uncle, I can’t blame her for the things I can blame him for. So while I’m okay with him dying... I’m not fine with her getting caught up in it.”
“This sounds... personal.” Mills commented.
“It doesn’t matter, it’s not as personal or as noble or as heroic or as wonderful as it sounds.” Layla muttered, looking away. “Just go and get your gun before they come back. I might not have a good shot but if you’re helping me we might manage to hold them off.”
Mills looked down at his hands, at Layla’s, she was still holding the gun but... did he really want to hurt her? What was he even doing? Moments ago he was at her throat...
But still, she was letting him leave, even if it was only so she could help him. He took the opportunity he could get and made his way to the door, looking behind him at Layla, who hadn’t moved a muscle, before turning back around and walking out to go get his gun from the trunk of the car. He’s figure out who to point it at later.
...
With Mills gone, Layla set to work, she opened the door to the bedroom back up, the door to the bathroom was still closed but just to be safe, she moved a cupboard in front of it. Moving over to the closet she put the amethyst jewel back onto the band of her hat and re-attached the star to her belt.
There was no getting Nicole out of here yet, she knew that much, she didn’t even know what to say to her. So as she looked back to the bathroom door, she walked over to the window and said nothing, opening it slightly and adjusting the grip on her gun.
For now, she just had to prepare.
----
Somewhere, a phone was answered. The man with the tan and the ruby star necklace was sitting on his bed in his shirt and undies, smoke rising up from the ash tray on the floor next to his feet.
“This is Stewart Sting. How can I be of surface?” He asked,
Standing outside of the Song Family manor, Suzy spoke into her own phone with a determined expression. “It’s me, Suzy. Listen, I’m going to need you to pull some strings.”
“...Now’s not the time, Sue. I’m having a hard time right now...”
“Look, we’ve found Nicole! But I’m going to need you to start flinging your weight around so the police don’t get involved with any incidents that occur at the Shell Beach Resort today, at least not for a few more hours.”
A resigned sigh followed by a puff of a cigarette. “Are you gonna cause a problem there?”
“Sure am, I’m gonna shoot the co-conspirator who kidnapped her right between the eyes, as soon as the psychic’s pull the identity of the killer out of her.”
“Are you kidding me!?”
“I don’t see why you’re complaining, you’re usually one for action, Stewie.”
“It’s not that! I’m the chief in
Queenshire, I can’t do shit down there!”
“Can’t you make a false claim to pull the police from that area over here?” Suzy asked.
“If I do that and you start shooting people at that resort, they’re going to know it was me! Besides, I don’t recall ever deciding to take orders from you, I did Estronius a few favours before but only because he was my buddy! I’m not helping you out one bit!”
“Come on, Stew, this is to avenge Estronius!”
“I’m not doing it, not now, not ever!”
The sound of a phone being slammed down violently, Suzy rolled her eyes.
“Guess we’ll have to make this quick then.”
----
The Road to Shell Beach Resort...it would take a few hours by car, but as a resort it was mainly targeting people who came by boat or were vacationing, so it wasn’t a place anyone that lived in the area would usually go to. Perhaps that was why Layla chose it?
That didn’t matter to Suzy, what mattered to her was getting there fast. So she had packed herself, Vincent, Whitney and Charlotte into a car, then another car with 4 backup grunts in it to accompany her and they proceeded to ignore all speed limits as they made their way to the destination.
Vincent was driving, as per usual. Suzy was in the passenger seat, readying her own personal stockpile of weapons, handing one to either Whitney or Charlotte as the time passed.
Handing a sawed-off shotgun to Whitney, she turned to look her in the eyes.
“...I understand why you brought my daughter with us, but I don’t want her killing anyone.” Whitney told her.
“Course not, but if any of us are distracted then she’s going to need to defend herself.” Suzy told her. Honestly, she would’ve preferred it if Whitney hadn’t come alone with them. But there wasn’t anything to be done about that, it would be unreasonable to ask someone who cared about their daughter to let them march headfirst into dangerous territory. Even with a pack of armed guards riding in a car behind them.
“And, you should probably button up your shirt as well.” Whitney suggested, “There’s a lot of uh...
vital organs being exposed.”
Suzy looked down briefly, “Right you are.” She said, disregarding the gun pile for a moment so she could button up her shirt properly. There was a time and a place for style and this was neither. “There’s some bulletproof vests in the back seat, should be enough for all four of us.”
“Honestly, I’m pretty sure I’m extraneous here. You already know everything and my mum can do the same shit I can.” Charlotte said, Suzy could tell she was on edge because she had Estronius’ phone out instead of her own and she wasn’t even doing anything with it.
“Nonsense dearie, you’re the one who looked into Layla’s past through a belonging she left behind, not just anyone can do that.” Whitney said.
“...Still, you could probably do it without the tether, I guess.” Charlotte shrugged.
Whitney shook her head. “Nonsense, just... nonsense, I would prefer it if you were safe and I’m going to make sure you are, but your abilities are far better than mine.”
“Only because I don’t let bias get in the way...” Charlotte muttered.
“What was that?” Whitney asked, turning to pull out 4 sets of bullet proof vests.
“Nothing.” Charlotte said, as Whitney shoved a bulletproof vest into her hands, before tossing two over the seats to Suzy and Vincent.
“Can you put mine on for me?” Vincent asked, “Bit busy driving.”
“Sure thing, just let me do mine first.” Suzy told him.
Preparing as they drove, they advanced down the road, going through a town, past a small police station in the middle of nowhere and towards the hills overlooking the shell beach.
Suzy buttoned her button-down shirt up over the bullet proof vest, it didn’t really hide it but with someone wasn’t looking they wouldn’t notice. Vincent on the other hand didn’t have the luxury of pulling his shirt on before putting his on. Charlotte had zipped her hoodie up to hide hers at Whitney’s suggestion, while she had put hers on over her coat-dress and tucked her ponytail into it, stopping it from getting in her way. Charlotte had a gun in one hand and Estronius’ phone in the other, but quickly made to discard the phone so she could hold the gun properly. Whitney had a gun in her lap and the sawed-off shotgun in her hand, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. They all had to temporarily take their seatbelts off to accomplish this, only Whitney had bothered to put her and Charlotte’s seatbelts back on.
Apart from some between Vincent and Suzy’s feet and a single gun lodged in Vincent’s coat pocket, the rest were with Suzy, who cocked the barrel of the one in her arms as the hotel came into view, they were now at the top of the hill and beginning to make their descent towards the car park.
“There it is... the hotel.” Vincent said.
“Layla’s had more than enough time to prepare for us, is she even still here?” Whitney asked.
“If she did, she left her phone behind.” Charlotte said, casting a small glance at Estronius’s phone.
Suzy looked behind her for a moment, leaning over the seat.“If she goes anywhere she’ll be taking Nicole with her, a 5 year old girl may not be able to do much but-“
She was interrupted the sound of shattering glass and the car veering off the road, momentum carrying it down the hill and straight into the wall surrounding the car park that lead into the hotel.
GUNFIGHT AT SHELL BEACH RESORT
BEGIN
“...Fuck...” Suzy lifted her head up somewhat woozily, it had only been a couple of seconds but she had completely lost track of time. There was a bullet embedded in the leather backseat of the car. She thought to herself that she should’ve put her seatbelt back on, she’d been knocked straight off her seat and tumbled directly onto Charlotte, who was still conscious and thankfully hadn’t fired her gun out of shock.
Still regaining her bearings, Suzy pushed the door open and tumbled out of the car, to the right, not too far from the entrance of the car park. A group of tourists nearby were screaming and retreating, she locked eyes with one that had taken their phone out and hidden behind a car with a group around their age. It looked like one of those fancy new ones that came with cameras and social media attached.
With a grunt, she pulled a small shotgun with a scope attached to it out and closed one eye, aiming and shooting the phone out of the tourists hand. Eliciting a panicked scream from them as they and their friends ran out of sight, leaving the shattered, expensive waste of money behind.
Following that came another loud boom from the other side of the car, She lifted hear head to see Whitney poking the shotgun out of the window of the car and towards the top of the hotel, where a pair of hands could be seen holding a gun, still firing at the road. Suzy recognized those hands as Layla’s, the aggressor dove out of range of sight for a moment, before poking the gun back out and firing at the road again, there was the sound of a glass shattering again. Suzy didn’t have to look to see what had happened.
“Shit!” One of the backup grunts exclaimed, as the car skidded along the road before regaining itself and driving up into the car park, turning diagonally as it abruptly halted itself just as it passed the entrance. Suzy could see that the man in the driver’s seat had a bullet hole right in his nose; the one responsible for stopping the car was leaning out from the passenger seat.
“Vincent, you okay?” Suzy asked.
“Ugh, fine as I can be...” Vincent groaned, she looked over to him to see that he had a bleeding head wound, not from a bullet but from his head colliding with the steering wheel.
“Well, get to cover before somebody shoots you.” Suzy told him. He pulled himself out of the seat and moved behind it so he could use it as cover, reaching into his pocket for his gun.
Charlotte looked between Vincent and Suzy, before looking to her mother. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Just stay in the car!” Whitney yelled as she fired another shot at the window, from the angle she was going at Suzy figured the bullet would hit the ceiling and not the person inside it. But if it kept Layla from shooting for a while it was all they needed.
“...I’m going in. Vincent, you can follow if you want.” Suzy said, staying crouched down as she went from the cover of the wall around the car park to the car full of grunts. “All of you, follow me!” She called out.
In that moment, a shot came from the entrance, shattering one of the two glass doors at the entrance and bouncing off the car.
“Shit! There’s another one!” One of the guys at the back of the car called out, rolling the side-view window down before poking his gun out and firing a round that shattered the other door. “Mills!?” The guy in the passenger seat called out, just as the man who was firing at them from inside, a short haired man with a physique not made for the staff uniform he was wearing ducked out of view.
“Did you say Mills?” The guy firing at the door asked, “Why’s he shooting at us? Why’s he dressed like that?”
“Ain’t it obvious?” Suzy called out, “He’s betrayed you for Layla, I bet she seduced him!”
“Tch, damn fool...” The guy tutted, firing another shot so Mills couldn’t get too close. “Should I keep firing?”
“He’s blocking the only exit so yes I want you to keep firing!” Suzy yelled. The grunt obliged.
Another gunshot from above, Whitney let out a pained noise behind her, Suzy didn’t have a good view of what Layla was doing but at least she knew both of her opponents were focused on different areas. Looking back to check on Whitney and Charlotte when she had Mills to deal with would be a bad idea so she didn’t even consider it.
She looked around the car park, then at the entrance to the hotel... then over to the other windows, perhaps the foyer or something, what it was didn’t matter to her- only that it was another entrance point. The car those tourists had been hiding behind earlier was at a convenient enough spot, so she gestured for the guys remaining in the car to keep firing as she dashed across the car park, going from one car to the next before she was right by the window she had eyed earlier.
The grunts in the car stopped to reload and in that moment another gunshot rang out from inside the hotel, Suzy watched as one of the guys in the back of the car went limp, falling onto the back of the car, being pushed to the side as the man next to him continued to fire his at the opponent. That was 2 out of 4 backup goons downed. She had to get on this fast.
Moving up to the window and slamming her elbow into it, shattering it apart. She shaved away the remaining shards of glass in the window frame by wiping them out with the stock of her gun before climbing in. She was inside a gift shop of some kind, comfy bean cushions and shelves with maps, leaflets, plush toys of hermit crabs and books with someone’s face plastered on them. A store clerk and a few tourists were huddled up in the corners, she put her fingers to her lips and they all nodded in response; terrified.
Feeling satisfied that a group of nobodies wouldn’t give her location away, she kept her body low and stepped closer to the entrance to the gift shop. She could see the reception through the glass window built into said door, but as she moved towards the door handle she paused, still listening to the gunshot, making sure that Mills was occupied before she opened the door ever so slightly, just enough for her to poke the barrel of her gun through.
After that, she poked her head through the door, she could see Mills at the end of the hallway, his back to a wall as he looked over his shoulder towards the shattered remains of the entrance. There was a few staff members tied up and knocked out behind the receptionist desk and the phone had been cut. Looks like they didn’t want police interference either...
Pulling her gun out, she held it up to her eye and found herself with the perfect shot, the shooting from outside ceased and Mills turned around, pointing his gun and firing at the car outside.
She adjusted her grip on her gun and pulled the trigger at that precise moment. The bullet whizzed through the air and pierced his back. Mills stumbled forwards, turning around to see her.
“Shit!” He gritted this teeth, making to step away from the entrance but getting shot again by the guys in the car, stumbling as he pulled himself out of their range, lifting his gun and aiming it towards Suzy as he fell onto his ass.
She fired again, the shot missing and sailing over his head. Suzy bit onto her lip and ducked back through the door just as Mills fired back, the bullet shot through the door and pierced one of the hermit crab toys lined up for sale instead. A second bullet went through the door, followed by a third.
He’d been shot at least twice and she could hear his pained curses. She peered through the door a second time to see him trying to pull himself into cover, dragging himself towards the receptionist desk while bleeding out from his back and the side of his leg. Muttering “Not like this... not like this...” like those words would keep him going. She pointed her gun to him and opened fire again, a bullet piercing his shoulder and knocking him onto his back, followed by a second one piercing him right through his temple before he could get back up.
Lying in the middle of the ground, his tensed up limbs went limp and blood began to pool from his numerous bullet wounds a few feet away from the desk.
Feeling satisfied, Suzy pulled herself from cover and closed the door behind her, walking up to Mills’ to get a better look at him, his wide blue eyes staring up at the ceiling and half-open mouth. She knelt down next to him, not bothering to avoid the blood pooling around him as she inspected the bullet wound in his head. There was no doubt, it got him right in the brain and killed him as soon as it hit him. She reached over and picked up the shotgun he had been using, looking it over and giving a brief glance at the scope attached to it that he hadn’t been using.
“All clear, boys!” She called out.
The response she received, however, was not what she had wanted to hear.
----
Whitney had one leg in the car, but the rest was exposed, firing up at Layla who had pressed herself against the wall to the side of the window so none of the bullets that were lucky enough to get in would hit her. She could hear Nicole crying in the bathroom, Suzy wasn’t anywhere to be seen and Mills wouldn’t be able to hold everyone off forever.
She peered down, Whitney was ducking back into the car to reload. Vincent was on the other side of the car, still firing at her but none of his bullets could get past the sign blocking it, so Layla felt safe when she poked her pistol hand out of the window and readied herself, Whitney poked back out of the car with a fully loaded gun and pointed it upwards just as Layla fired. The bullet pierced right through the nose bridge of the sunglasses, shattering them apart completely as a explosion of blood followed milliseconds afterwards. It felt like the world was going in slow motion just for a second, even from this distance Layla could see the woman’s fingers slowly release the gun, a blast flying from the chamber and veering off course completely as Whitney stumbled back, dropping the gun and landing in the grass, her legs drawn up together and her arms splayed out above her head.
“MUM!” A voice Layla hadn’t expected shouted at the top of its lungs.
----
Two gunshots, followed by a loud “MUM!” from Charlotte. Suzy turned her head to look back outside, that feeling of satisfaction being quickly replaced by a lump in her throat.
Shit.Suzy ran back out through the front door, thankfully not being gunned down by her own guys just in time to see the two men remaining staring down at where Charlotte and Whitney were. Vincent was poking his head over the wall, occasionally firing at Layla’s window while gesturing for Suzy to stay back.
“Vince, what’s going on?” Suzy asked him, shouting over the gunfire.
“Layla got Whitney right in the head!” Vincent told her. “Keep going, I’ll find an opportunity and catch up!”
Suzy’s eyes went wide. “...No, this is the exact opposite of what I wanted. Fuck it, you two follow me!” She called out, glaring at the two grunts remaining before heading back inside. They hurried out of their car, lugging their guns with them as they followed her into the hotel.
Vincent smiled slightly as she vanished from the scene, but that smile didn’t last long when he heard the familiar sound of police sirens.
Groaning, he turned around. He couldn’t see the cars yet, but they had to be approaching from behind that hill. Rolling his eyes, he tucked the gun back into his pocket and went over to Charlotte, who was still crouching over the corpse of her mother.
“Shit, Charlotte, c’mon. We need to get away from here before the police come!” He told her, only for the girl to push him away.
“You only brought us here because you wanted me to die in the cross fire!” Charlotte yelled at him, “Don’t pretend you care about me now! Not when you’ve just killed my mother!”
“Charlotte, now is not the time!” Vincent yelled back, grabbing her by her shoulder and pulling her up to her feet.
Another bullet flew right into his shoulder, the only thing that saved him was the bulletproof vest he had on. He let out a pained noise regardless before ducking back into the car, dragging Charlotte with him as he pulled both of them from one open car door straight to the other, running out of Layla’s range and into the hotel after Suzy.
“No, let me go!” Charlotte continued to scream, “I told you to get off me, you prick!” She balled her hand into a fist and clocked Vincent right in the throat with it, prying herself out of his grasp and running in the opposite direction. He let out a sharp breath, staggering as she ran back to the car park, turning a corner and vanishing from sight. He reached into his pocket for his gun before shaking his head, going after Suzy instead. Putting a hand over his throat as he walked away.
----
“...Damn it!” Layla cursed, breaking away from the window. Backing up against the wall on the other side of the bedroom for a moment, looking to the bathroom door right next to her. The one Nicole had locked herself inside of. Apart from the dead body, that car was now deserted. Which meant that everyone was coming into the hotel, which meant that Mills had been dealt with, in some manner or another...
She knocked on the bathroom door. “...Nicole? Nicole, darling, please open the door!”
“No!” Nicole cried out from inside it, Layla jostled the doorknob a few times but it didn’t open.
“Nicole, please, I promise to explain this all later but if you don’t open the door they’re going to bust in here and kill you!” Layla told her, hoping the panic in her voice would convince her.
It did not, Nicole shouted back at her even louder than before “Why should I believe you!?”
“Nicole...” Layla frowned, staring down at the door, “I only did this because I cared about you too much to let her kill you...”
“I! don’t! believe you!” Nicole screamed. Layla could hear her pounding at the bathroom door. Not opening it though, the lock didn’t even shift.
Layla’s shoulders sagged, “...Nicole, please.”
“No! Go away! I don’t want to talk to you ever again! You took me away from my uncle and now he’s dead!”
...There was nothing Layla could do here, she ignored the tears welling up in her eyes and went over to the bedroom door. She could run, the idea occurred to her, but she didn’t do it. Instead... she grabbed the bedroom door and closed it, turning the lock until it was locked as tight as it could be. Then she went to the open window and pushed it until it was as open as it could possibly be. Backing away and pointing her pistol towards the door with a steady hand. Suzy was coming here to kill her, she knew that much. So she’d be coming here as well... and when she did...
She’d keep her ears open, and she’d be ready.
----
Suzy stood with her back to the side of the elevator, holding her gun, prepared for gunfire to start again at a moment’s notice. Her two grunts were directly across from her, one of them pointing their gun at the elevator door and the other with their finger still hovering over the buttons, even as the elevator climbed.
3rd floor...
4th floor...
5th floor...
6th floor. DING!
The elevator reached its destination and stopped, the doors sliding open to reveal a hallway one would expect from a luxury suite hotel, the carpet looked comfortable enough to sleep on and the walls looked pristine and white, with various designs of shellfish and crustaceans painted on it that Suzy had to admit looked cute.
It was empty, suspiciously so. Suzy peered out of the elevator and pressed her back to the wall next to it. They weren’t too far from the stairs, which looked to go up a couple extra floors, to the left was a room with a sign that indicated it had either a Jacuzzi or a masseuse in it, but that wasn’t what she was looking for. The other side of the hall had a series of regular ass hotel rooms. She went to the first one and kicked the door open. A man and woman standing by the window both let out simultaneous screams, before stopping when she pointed a gun at them. It looked like they had been watching the proceedings from the window, both of them were in a state of half-dress. They probably woke up late or simply hadn’t left this room all day.
“Where’s the luxury suite!?” Suzy asked.
“I-I-I-I-! It’s over there, man!” The man cried out, stepping in front of the woman and raising his hands into the air.
“Give me actual directions, or we’ll shoot both of you!” Suzy told them. She could see both of their eyes looking over to the two significantly larger thugs behind her.
“Just keep going past the rest of these rooms, alright!? There’s a giant sign next to them! You literally can’t miss it!”
Suzy narrowed her eyes at him, before eying the telephone on the desk next to the bed. She aimed her gun and shot it, destroying it before turning around, “Get out of here.” She told them.
“You fucking bet we will!” The woman called out, but Suzy wasn’t paying attention to her anymore. She took a few steps forwards, then considered the situation and looked back to her thugs.
“...Actually, you should silence them.” Suzy said, the two thugs obliged and began firing into the room, cutting of a ‘No, please!’ before Suzy could even process it. “And close the door!” She called out, breaking out into a run. They were probably assholes anyway, it was fine.
It was like the man said, there was a very gaudy looking sign, decorated with designs of sandcastles and crabs that told her exactly where the Luxury Suite was. The hallway broke off into a L shape, round one corner was the luxury suite, up a small separate flight of stairs that appeared to lead to that suite and that suite exclusively.
----
The luxury suite was quiet, still, unmoving.
A single plate of strawberry crepes lay on the floor, plate up with bits of half eaten strawberries and untouched crepes scattered around it. There were two other plates on the table, both had gone untouched, an omelette and crepes with lemons instead. The flat screen tv had been muted, now showing visuals of a cuttlefish going about its business.
A bullet shot through the door, going all the way through the suite and crashing into the door that led to the balcony, followed by a second and then a third that hit a chair. The door thumped once, then twice before being knocked clean off its hinges and kicked down by one of the thugs, who walked in first. Pointing his gun at the unoccupied balcony as Suzy walked in next.
She looked down to the food, before grabbing one of the lemon crepes and taking a bite out of it. She let out a satisfied noise before putting it back on the plate, deciding to eat it later and focus on the room around her. There was no sign of Whitney, nor any sign of Nicole.
Which meant they had to be inside one of the two bedrooms, if they were in this room at all. Of course, them being absent was a possibility but it wasn’t something she could confirm without checking for herself.
The documentary panned to an assortment of anemone dotted around a coral reef, some of which with clownfish swimming around them. Suzy looked to the door to the room closest to the outside, the one that Layla would’ve been in when she was firing at them earlier and gestured for the thugs to prepare themselves. One traded out the smaller gun they were holding for an automatic shotgun, walking on up to the door and angling themselves just right, as the second pressed himself up against the wall nearby. Suzy kept her distance, remaining near the plates as she pointed her own gun at the door as well.
All three of them fired simultaneously, blowing copious amounts of bullet holes through the door, as they did somebody inside fired back at them, a bullet blasting the thug with the automatic shotgun right in the gut and sending him flying into the small coffee table near the balcony. Bullets hit the wall behind Suzy, slowly getting closer and closer to where she was, she cursed silently and jumped to the side, ducking into a roll and firing at the doors hinges, blasting them apart.
Suzy could hear Nicole screaming from behind the wall, directly behind the tv; now displaying footage of an anemone eating a small fish. She lifted her gun up and fired straight at the TV, the screen shattered but the footage continued playing uninterrupted, although slightly distorted. Another bullet sailed through the door at an angle, blowing the ear off the guy who was dead against the coffee table already. The man with his back to the wall pointed his gun at the door and shot right through it, eliciting a “AH!”, it sounded like Layla.
A few more shots from inside the room, one hitting the balcony, one hitting the wall above the lounge chair and another piercing the arm rest furthest from the room.
Suzy and her last remaining thug both kept their guns pointed at the door, firing a few more shots into it. She was impressed that the thing was still standing. They waited a second, getting back into cover only for nothing else to fire at them.
Suzy peered up to the grunt, gesturing for him to knock the door down, he obliged, throwing his whole weight into it and knocking it open- and off its hinges- with ease. The door slid onto the ground behind him as he looked into the bedroom. Suzy took a few steps in after him, finding it unoccupied.
There were a few droplets of blood on the bed, numerous gunshots in the wall and along the furnishings, a few bullet holes in the curtain that had been drawn up over the window... but no sign of Layla.
“The fuck?” Suzy asked, gripping her gun as she entered the room. “Where’d she go?”
She turned around, doing a complete 180 and looking to the closet. Firing a few bullets into it but getting no response, the grunt walked over to the curtain, opening it up to find the window was still open. He peered out of it, staring off into the hills as Suzy made her way to the bathroom door, grabbing onto the handle and pushing it. Then pulling it when that didn’t work.
...Outside of the hotel, dangling from the brickwork was Layla. Her gun tucked into her belt and her picture hat barely staying on her head. She stared up as the grunt looked around, praying that he wouldn’t notice her as she sidled along the wall beneath the window. There weren’t any balconies below her, if she fell she’d break her back on the ground, all she had keeping her from certain death was her fingers and the windowsill blocking his view.
“Hey, get over here and help me break this door down!” Suzy called out from inside, thankfully directing the man’s attention elsewhere as Layla reached the balcony, wrapping her hands around the railing. The picture hat fell slightly, covering one of her eyes as she lifted herself up.
She could hear them shooting into the bathroom door, damaging its hinges and slamming into it as she climbed over the balcony railing, flipping herself over and rolling onto it. Her picture hat falling from her head and landing upside down by her feet.
From here, she had a perfect shot of the grunt... but Suzy was tragically out of range, blocked from her view by the wall separating the lounge from the bedroom. She lifted her arm up, steadied her aim and...
A bullet sailed through the air, cracking through the balcony door and striking the grunt in the back of the head, Suzy almost jumped out of her skin, turning around and slamming her back into the bathroom door just in time to see the guy fall to the floor.
“Holy shit!” Suzy cried out, turning and looking straight to Layla, standing in the middle of the balcony with a cold expression on her face.
“...Goodbye, bitch.” Layla spoke, staring down at Suzy with a chilling expression in her cold violet eyes as she took a step to the side so the wall wouldn’t be in her way and fired. Suzy pushed herself off the door and to the bed for cover.
In the background, they both faintly registered the sound of approaching police cars, but that didn’t matter yet. Layla pushed the balcony open as Suzy raised a arm and fired at her. The woman in the white dress fired back, a bullet hitting Suzy’s emerald ear-ring and separating it from her ear, causing it to shatter into several green shards that spilled onto the floor. Pushing her back into the cabinet behind her as Layla dove out of sight, squashing a few strawberries beneath her shoes.
Suzy looked down at her shattered earring before throwing herself away from the bed, peering out through the opened doorway to see Layla standing with her knees against the dinner plates, Suzy fired at her, a bullet skidding past her shoulder and into the wall behind her. Layla winced as she ducked to the opposite side, heading back to the balcony as she continued firing at Suzy, each bullet hit her in the bulletproof vest hidden beneath her shirt. Suzy fired a shot that hit Layla right in the belt, knocking the star-shaped pin from it as she stumbled back and landed with her hips to the railing. One hand reaching to it to steady herself as she kept her gun pointed at Suzy, who fired again, a grin spreading across her face as she kept firing. Layla and Suzy both fired at each other simultaneously, bullets hitting Suzy in the knee, the chest and the hip as spurts of blood trailed from the side of Layla’s stomach, her chest and her neck, like cuts from the sharpest blades.
Her violet eyes went wide as her arm, pointing the pistol at Suzy started shaking. She pressed the trigger a few more times but no bullets came out, it was then that she took a few steps to the side, hand sliding along the rail of the balcony before she collapsed onto her side right at the corner, her long, thick hair falling over her face and into the air beneath the railings.
“Ah.... Ugh...” Layla groaned, her fingers still curled around the trigger. Suzy stared down at her dispassionately.
“I win, Layla.” She told her.
“Oh fuck off...” Layla muttered, she sounded like she was gargling blood.
“I didn’t want things to end up like this, you know. But a few of the people over where I was started getting a bit too smart, and that guy you were with yelling your location out like that didn’t make it easy for me either. But hey, I think is all going to work out nicely enough, isn’t it?” Suzy asked.
“You’re... so fucking predictable, Suzanne...” Layla coughed, blood dripping from her mouth. She was almost completely stationary, flexing the tips of her fingers and nothing else. Her eyes peering past Suzy to the television screen, it was a garbled mess but she thought she could make out a whale surging out of the ocean or something through the distortion.
“...Maybe I am. It doesn’t matter to you anymore.” Suzy told her, turning her back on the woman and leaving her to bleed out on the balcony. She ignored the sound of wood creaking as she made her way back to the bedroom, the bathroom door was already busted to fuck, she slammed into it one more time and found she could open it in spite of its locked status. She was limping all the way to it, having a bullet lodged in ones knee hurt like hell, after all.
It was a pleasant enough bathroom, she supposed. Calming pale colours and a nice looking mirror built into the wall above the sink, there was even a separate stall for the toilet, a curtain drawn over the bathtub. She briefly looked at the bathtub before looking over to the toilet stall, it was shut... but she could hear Nicole’s shivering from here.
“...Hello, niece.” She said, finding she hated the taste of that word on her tongue. Nicole said nothing, but it was obvious she was there. Suzy took one step, then another...
“Suzy.” A sudden voice said, as a hand placed itself on her shoulder. She whirled around, finger back on her gun- only to find Vincent standing there.
“Whoa, whoa, easy...” Vincent said, with a hand up. “It’s just me.”
“Oh, hey Vince.” Suzy nodded to him, “When’d you get here?”
“Just now.” Vincent told her. “I see everyone else is dead.”
“Yeah.” Suzy nodded, “Where’s Charlotte?”
“She ran off.” Vincent answered.
“...Fuck.” Suzy gritted her teeth, turning around. “Fine, let’s just end this.”
“Are you going to kill her?” He asked.
“Of course I fucking am!” Suzy yelled, “This kid ruined my life, and I can’t just leave here without her saying she’s vanished, can I!? I want this shit over with!”
“...Right.” He said.
“...I... I don’t understand...” Nicole’s voice came through, from the toilet.
“Oh, she doesn’t understand?” Suzy asked, bringing her gun up and pointing it right against the stall door. “You don’t understand, do you? I’ve been saddled with you since the moment you showed up you little prick! I could’ve lived my life, I could’ve been a queen, or a maiden, or anything! But no! She had you and left, and the rest of the family dumped you on me!
Then, then, now that we’re here- we’d have a new life, right? But no, wrong again! Sure, my brother was happy to take you off my hands but now you’re the one inheriting everything! You’re the only person he cares about anymore, I can die! Benedict can die, nobody will care! But everything’s being given to you because you’re Elton’s darling little niece and now that daddy’s gone he gets to make the rules!
I was in line first! I should’ve been a maiden! I should’ve had everything the rest had, but no!”
“I-...” Nicole was in tears, “I don’t... what are you even saying!?”
“...I don’t need you to understand. I just need you out of my way, so I can live the life I’ve always wanted to without having you blocking off every path I’ve ever wanted to take.” Suzy glared at the door, just another door that was locked for her and her alone that she’d have to force her way through if she wanted to get anywhere.
She put her finger on the trigger... and stopped. She lowered the gun, staring down at it. “...Fuck, fuck!” She yelled, turning to the side. “FUCK!”
“What... what is it?” Vincent was backing away, reaching into his pocket.
“I can’t-... I don’t know if I want to do this! I- I hate her, but, she’s still a kid.” Suzy muttered.
“Then... you don’t have to shoot her. You can just say she’s gone missing or have someone fake her death.” Vincent suggested.
“I don’t know, man.” Suzy sighed, looking down at her gun, opening up the chamber to inspect the bullets.
“...Is it true?” Nicole asked, despite her older self disagreeing, she chose this moment to ask the question that wouldn't leave her mind. “Did you kill my uncle?”
At that, Suzy froze up.
“Layla... said you were going to kill me... and blame it on her, is that true? That you... you would do that?” Nicole continued.
Vincent cringed, stepping out into the doorway as Suzy stared at the toilet stall. Just another locked door.
“D-did you do it?”
“No.” Suzy said, lifting up her gun. “I didn’t. I wouldn’t ever kill my brother. Despite everything... he was my family, you know?
...But I suppose, we’re not a very good family, are we? We all hate each other’s guts.”
BANG!----
Layla’s corpse, lying on the balcony, fingers still curled around the empty pistol in its hand.
The corpses of two thugs, one against the coffee table and another lying on his face next to the bed.
Three plates, a half-eaten lemon crepe, a plate full of strawberry crepes that had been tossed to the floor and stepped on, a untouched omelette in front of a glitched up, distorted TV no longer showing anything legible.
Suzy’s corpse had been moved to the side and now rested against the wall of the bathroom right next to the stall, a hole blasted right through the back of her skull, the blood splatter of which was left right on the door of the toilet stall, now swaying in the still air.
Nicole stared at the figure right in front of her, her knees drawn up to her chest. Her eyes and face were both visibly reddened and even now, she was crying and shaking.
They could both hear police sirens.
Vincent stared down at her. He could hear the cars coming to a stop and the police marching in through the first floor... he placed his gun back into his pocket and pulled out a phone instead. Quickly sending a text.
To: F0
‘Had to kill Suzanne.
Whitney and Layla died too.’He received a response immediately.
‘That’s fine. Keep doing what you’re doing, once that’s done I won’t need anything else and you can rest easy.’
----
...
Nicole sat down. She had paused it again, right on the text.
“That makes too much sense, if anyone was working with her it would’ve been him. Fucking hell...”
She grabbed the remote let it resume for just a few seconds, pausing it as soon as it showed her Vincent’s face as he stared down at her younger, distraught self.
“...Would you have done that even if you didn’t have someone telling you to? I was five. I was a five year old about to be shot down by my own aunt... you would’ve done it even without F telling you too, wouldn’t you?” Nicole asked the screen. “Who am I kidding? It’s not like you’re going to respond. You’re just a recording, a recording of someone who may or may not have cared about me. Like everybody else in my life.
...Except him of course, but all of you, all of you killed him in the first place.”
The lights above her turned red. She re-wound the footage again, going back to when Suzy was alive. To that final, resolute frown she had on as she pointed the gun to the stall.
“...In those final moments, those were lies, weren’t they. Suzy?” Nicole asked her. “You did kill him, and if you weren’t the one to personally do it you certainly had something to do with it. With your oldest brother gone, and the next in line ex-communicated, you’d be the only sibling left. That’d make you ‘queen’. ”
It doesn’t change anything, does it?
Nicole looked down next to her, an emerald star earring- in this light, it looked almost black, but despite that it was still recognizably Suzy’s. When did it even get there?
There was a large amethyst star next to it as well, the one that Layla had worn on her hat. Nicole glared at it and the lights shifted to purple.
Without her input at all, the TV shifted to show the footage of Layla giving Estronius a light peck of the cheek before walking past him.
“...And you. My thoughts on you haven’t changed at all, they never will. You kidnapped me, you lied to me. You didn’t even tell me he died.”
The footage shifted again, Layla and Nicole alone at the pagoda in the centre of the maze.
“You wanted my uncle to die, so even if you did truly care about me... I can’t forgive you.”
To Layla being gunned down on the balcony...
“...So, you didn’t want me to die? What am I supposed to do with that? Am I supposed to let one good thing overwrite everything else?”
Back to Nicole and Layla laughing to each other back in the kitchen, at the very start.
“You didn’t even love him. You were lying to him as well. You were just one of three people plotting his death and you got betrayed. Am I... Am I supposed to still care about you after that!?”
Nicole shot up to her feet, slamming a fist into the screen. It exploded into static and then switched back to Suzy’s corpse, “And what about you, huh!? What about you!? Couldn’t you have just gone on with your life after dumping me with Estronius? Was I really so bad that you had to kill him AND me as well? What the fuck was your problem, you bitch!?”
She punched the TV again... it switched to footage of a younger Suzy, with longer hair in a dress carrying a baby in her arms as she ducked into a metallic pod of some sorts. The lights above her turned off, drenching the entire room in darkness except for that which the TV shined on.
“...Was I really so bad?... Did you really hate me, hate my uncle, so much?” She was crying, again. “W-what did I ever do to you?”
She fell to her knees, pressing her face right up against the screen as it shifted to a still image of that younger Suzy, there was a woman next to her. She was still holding the baby, but she looked happier. “...I never hated you. I thought you were cool...way cooler than Benevici, so... Why...
...Why couldn’t I just hate you and be done with it?”----
The next day, it was all over the news.
A listless Nicole sat on Ryuichi’s couch, a cup of lemonade clasped in her hands. Tsubasa stood at her side with her hands clasped together.
“You tell me if you need anything, okay?” Tsubasa smiled at her, her large earrings twinkling in the sunbeams as she turned around to head over to her husband, who was nose deep in some paperwork. In any other time Nicole would’ve found it weird that she was still just wearing a dressing gown, but now she found she couldn’t think about anything. Vincent was on the balcony, smoking another of Ryuichi’s cigarette’s while looking over Estronius’s phone.
David was sitting next to her, happily eating his cereal as he watched the cartoon on TV.
While going through his papers, Ryuichi briefly looked over to his computer and then stood up. “Hey, Vincent, come over here.” He called out.
Vincent looked up from the phone for a moment, shrugging as he went back inside. He placed the phone on the table near Nicole before making his way over to the desk Ryuichi was sitting at. Tsubasa had vanished completely.
“Hm, what is it?” Vincent asked, looking over the corner of his shoulder at the kids as he leaned down next to Ryuichi, who pointed at the computer monitor, showing a news article.
“You’re going to want to read this.” Ryuichi told him, Vincent shrugged, removing the cigarette as he grabbed hold of the mouse and moved past the lawyer, staring intently at the words on the screen.
BREAKING NEWS: SONG FAMILY LEADER DEAD! INTER-GANG DISPUTES RESULT IN DEATHS AT BEACHFRONT RESORT
Previously hidden from anyone, it has been leaked that the leader of the Song Family, Estronius Song had been found dead in his manor after it was lit on fire by a unknown assailant. News of his death came to light after investigating a gunfight that broke out at Shell Beach Resort on the edge of Murphy Hills.
The notorious crime family had brought all the gangs on the island beneath their heel and settled down considerably in the past few years, seemingly vanishing off the map until a warehouse was raided not too long ago thanks to an anonymous tip the police received. In the days since the family has fallen apart and come back into the limelight but not in the way anyone expected!
Yesterday, at approximately noon, the sister of the deceased leader, one Suzanne Song packed 2 cars full of members of the organization and drove straight to the hotel, where she proceeded to get in a gunfight with Layla Francis (27 years old) a jeweller who was rumoured to be the (deceased) head’s romantic partner. Layla had previously booked the luxury suite on the 6th floor when a man identified as Mills Parks (36) and a unknown child believed to have been the niece of Estronius, Nicole Song (4) under a series of fake names. Mills, Layla and Suzanne were all confirmed dead at the scene when police arrived.
One Vincent Song (33) was witnessed at the scene taking part in the gunfight, but had already made his escape by the time the police arrived. Due to the large amount of casualties, property damage and the 2 guests who were killed in the crossfire of the schism that appeared to have splintered across the gang after its leaders demise the Shell Beach Resort has closed its doors until further notice. The investigators on the sight refused to take part in any interviews but did officially declare him Wanted by the Queen’s Police; any information regarding his location should be brought to the police as soon as possible to assist in his capture.
Also believed to be at the scene was the daughter of a woman was found dead outside of the hotel, Charlotte Goode (15) who has since been declared legally missing along with Nicole Song. Any information regarding these two should be brought to the missing persons divisions in Murphy (the scene of the dispute) or Queenshire (their official residence) as soon as possible to stop harm from coming to either of them. Nicole is deemed of utmost importance as she is believed to be the one next in line to inherit control of the mob family, in spite of her young age.
Everyone near the Song Family should stay indoors when its dark or stay away from any areas or people they believe to be suspicious, as this is believed to only be the first of many disputes to break out in the power vacuum caused by the leaders mysterious death.----
Charlotte stood in the middle of a convenience store with her hood drawn up over her head, holding the newspaper in her hands. Staring at it, she could only scoff.
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The man with the tan and the shutter shades, the chief of police in Queenshire, Stewart Sting frowned to himself as he watched the TV, looking away from it as he hung his head, with an already defeated expression on his face.
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Somewhere, in his own house, a man with short white hair wearing a black trench coat and hat looked over the newspaper with a serious expression.
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As the adults started talking amongst themselves behind her, Nicole briefly glanced at them. It looked like whatever they were showing each other on the computer had both Ryuichi and Vincent sufficiently unnerved.
There was a alert noise from the phone on the table. It pulled her out of her mind and back to reality. David was talking about something but she wasn’t paying any attention to him, she couldn’t if she tried. Silently, she placed her milkshake on the table and picked the phone up, it was her uncles.
She tapped on the alert and a text message appeared on it.
F0: Hello Nicole.
To be continued in part 2...