LOGINShare
Chapter 13
Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56MARGARET OPENED THE door to see Charles behind the hinged wood waiting for her. Her eyes immediately went to the similar ring he wore at his finger. She’s so fed up with the thoughts of the other fish she hadn’t reeled in that she allowed the person in her midst to come flood her that she had coming.
“Sorry I didn’t get to follow you up after your meeting with Mr. Meyer. I had back-to-back ones myself since yesterday,” he leaned in for a kiss.
Margaret, in her ever-overflowing roulette, leaned back a bit to say “I have something to tell you.”
Charles’s heart performed a Led Zeppelin drum solo when he just realized that the loose end Maragaret tried to hitch and shank might have not been tied with Albert. Charles struggled to believe it though, knowing of his adopted brother’s innate character. To him, Albert's the brother with the most honor; seeing that he’s still duty-bound to the their father after all these years.
The same form of drum solo was happening inside Margaret’s head as she never even anticipated what her mouth did a moment ago. She slid past the overwhelming pressure of her indecisiveness and just threw her mouth to kiss Charles to prevent further suspicion... and traction.
“I wanted to say that I still haven’t brushed my teeth, but I guess it was pretty impolite for me to not kiss you back.”
“Oh, thank god,” Charles breathed. “I mean—that’s okay.”
A fiddly string fiddled itself between the two with that slip. They were both high-pressured with the fact that this is their first time in the position of near-marriage. They hoped to make it their last.
The time ebbed as they look for more things to do around the house that will cause them to delay their speaking. But there’s only so much food you can munch on the fridge, appliances you can dust, and yards you can scale in this claustrophobic space. When the time eventually came, the house looked like a clean mess.
“How was yesterday?” Charles took his courage and started it.
Margaret, still uneasy, missed the entire island in what she was trying to say, and hit a double bull on the weird answers slot, “He’s currently on a date with your secretary.”
“Huh?”
As their chemistry collapsed, another pair in town’s relationship got better by the second. Ana and Albert, surprisingly for both of them, were having one of their best dates just by talking. They both got that feeling when you find someone who’s equally as invested in a fandom as you. Although, one statement from Ana caught Albert off-guard.
"My girl?" he asked, almost choking on his chicken.
"Yeah, that pretty little thing called Marge." Ana was so imbued in knowing the relationship between the two that she clicked more buttons than one.
"She's not...my girl. There’s no possessions happening there."
"But what's your relationship with her? Someone kept telling me to stop pursuing you because you're clearly in love with her."
Albert raised an eyebrow. "Who told?"
Ana told him that VV used to tell her a lot about their relationship every time she failed hitting on Albert. VV thought, he’d be the net to catch her, but she made no effort to make eyes back at the butler. Although, his words still stuck a bit to her. So, she wanted an answer.
Albert answered.
Ana got flabbergasted by the answer. “Best friends? You told me you rarely see each other!” Ana exclaimed with Albert's story.
“Were. We were best friends. You could say we still are but it’s complicated,” he cleared that up. Even before his pirate expedition towards seclusion in beaches, Albert rarely saw Margaret perchance he’d see the Baron and give him an assignment. At least that’s what he told himself was the real reason.
“Did something happen that made you stop being best friends? I believe by the I knew you; you were already kind of growing distant with each other.”
“That was the time I...uh”—he looked for a reason— “I got busy with work!” He tried dodging from the fact that the time he met Ana was the time Margaret and Charles got together. That was the same time he found out, maybe that’s why he always has associated the people present then, including Ana, with a bitter time. He tried harder to hide it from his face.
But Ana noticed and grabbed the fork-squeezing hand of Albert. "I’m sorry for insisting you to tell the story. I thought you guys had a relationship more than that," the concerned lady commented. As a woman of boundless intuition, Ana knew what the man in her midst was feeling, but she still wanted him to feel comfort.
Albert, in his ever-honesty replied. "We almost did ages ago. Several times. But circumstances didn't allow it and we still remained friends and that’s what matters."
Ana caressed the hand in her in sympathy. His Maldives-tanned hand full of animal bites and scratches pale in comparison to Ana’s perfect-colored unblemished gem.
"Your hands are really pretty," he uttered. His eyes lingered while he traced its every outline.
"Yours are, too. I wonder what wonderful things can it do," she shot a stare into Albert's weary soul.
Being a human with a non-stupid brain, he knew what that snake of a look implied and was trying to tell. After a quick wipe from the well-lit food parlor; through the dissatisfying jalopies galloping around town; to Albert’s apartment, these feelings just echoed with him.
"Wow, I know I'm not expecting anything on how your place will look but this is just out of my comprehension," Ana was stunned by the fact that Albert has an empty room for an apartment. Just a huge cuboid space with nothing.
"I'm usually not here so I never really get the need to decorate."
Ana wandered around in search for things but all she found was a refrigerator full of vanilla ice cream, a cabinet full of condiments, and a 2,000-square-feet room full of bored microbes who played poker with nonbeing.
Albert wasn't the type to decorate just for the sake of looks; a kind of super minimalist. If it's not functional, it's not in his mind to put it just for him to get bored at it and throw it while wasting a decent amount of money.
Although, "I do have a fully furnished bedroom though if you want to see it."
She just nodded, "Ah, I see. You made your living room empty so that you’ll have an excuse to show them your bedroom." She kept on nodding as to bask in her detective work and patted herself the shoulder.
He just opened his bedroom. "Well, don't you want to?"
Related chapters
1st Death Chapter 14
ANA TURNED HER back at the front door and locked it while maintaining eye contact with the owner. Albert invited her to come dilly-dally at his bedroom, but she wanted a big space for what she’s about to do. "I don't need to be in your bedroom for that." Without missing a beat, she removed one strap of her yellow silk charmeuse, then the other strap following shortly. Her dress dropped and so did Albert's vocabulary. He was awed at the impeccable color of her skin and how her yellow underwear complimented her body. "Amazing."
1st Death Chapter 15
AS THE SUN dribbled its rays at the ring, it shone at Margaret's eyes and it made her flinch. Their engagement is literally blinding her as she tried to make sense of everyone's decisions. She especially tried to make sense of the lady in the mirror's decision. She stared and wondered how this all came to be."If I looked like that, I'd be staring at myself in the mirror all morning, too." A naked Charles sprung up the sheets and towards Margaret, caressed her arm as he kissed her nape. "Last night was fun," he resumed.Margaret kept frozen for a few seconds
1st Death Chapter 16
THE FINE TUX hugging Albert felt so uncomfortable and unfamiliar with his skin that he’s sweating buckets in his mind even when the AC’s turned up they’re no less than a fridge filled with phonies. Ana noticed the discomfort of her date. “It’ll just be an hour or so. You have to look your best during your great white buffalo’s engagement party.” Now that she knew that Albert was hers to keep, she was so supportive of him throughout the week that’s passed. She even picked his clothes to match hers to make them all cutesy and stuff. But most of all, she just wanted impress him with a reference.
1st Death Chapter 17
"GD? WHAT’S WITH the sirens?” Margaret repeated herself.The noises from the other side still felt overwhelming but GD tried to get some words out, “Hard to explain. Come here ASAP.” He used a simpler and briefer response.With panic rightfully swelling from her just-awoken self, she got dressed as fast as she can. When she remembered she can’t sprint from her place to the mansion, she tried to call Charles, who didn’t answer.Margaret swiftly descended her stairs to try and call VV, when he was already a few lamp posts away; scurrying. The sound of the decade-old limousine roared past the morning people while the two of them hurry to where they were asked to go.“Did you know what happened?” Margaret asked, heart throbbing.“Charles just called me to get you as fast as I can.”Why didn’t he answer my call, then? She tried to make a smaller issue in her mind as she can’t
1st Death Chapter 18
THE SETTING WAS unnerving—it played off like one of those whodunnit shows that you'd always want to see in real life. With all the Case Closed and Hardy Boys the people have read, it then seemed like a great idea. But now that it's here, the air was tenser than a coin toss from a Clint Eastwood neo-western film. Margaret Bishop Charles Pierre Alfred IV Charles Pierre Alfred V
1st Death Chapter 19
BEING A TOP detective doesn’t always mean you’ll be familiar with the person running the town you’re protecting. And that’s the case for August, who sat across Charles to asses him whether or not he has murdered her secretary.“Morning, Mr. Mayor,” August greeted,emittingthe good.“Likewise.”Both of
1st Death Chapter 20
Albert Meyer 1989; 27 Zoologist and AnimalBehaviourist Bright leaned forward and shook Albert’s hand. “Good day to you sir,” he immediately regretted his choice of words. “I mean...bad day to you sir. Or...uhm...” Alb
1st Death Chapter 21
THE SILENT CONSULTATIONS of August and Brightt’wardsthe faceted tips of the start of their investigation echoed like a canyon reverberating their thoughts back at them. “Four perfect alibis, one memory-loss, and the mayor of the...us.” Bright was recappingthe two-hour interview with the potential suspects. He stood leaned at the doorway to listen if a commotion rises outside. “All present evidences lead towards an external suspect but my gut tells me that’s not the case.” To August, the death seemed so specifically crafted that there’s only a small chance of her dying to a third-party. "If it’s none of these six, then it has to be a
Latest chapter
1st Death Chapter 47
“VV, DO YOU know where this is?” one of the butlers under VV’s command told him of the latest news.“This wretched place?” VV had never personally been there; but the countless stories about the butchery division of the old version of the company drove even him, a hitman who based his entire work ethic on Benedict Arnold: the world’s most hated traitor, to barf beaches.“I know where it is, but I haven’t been there yet. I heard only of stories.”He was in pursuit of a different brother and was growing restless, but something as reliable as this made his whimsical side come up to love the recent development. The added bonus of having to see Von’s expression, who he thought would be with him, after telling him of his wife barbecuing. He and his flunkeys rounded up the rest of them prancing around the city because of the treasure hunt to play one dodgeball. Only the dodgers this time would have no Sandy fi
1st Death Chapter 46
WHEN CAINE READ the latest update from the one person the public deemed missing about another person misplaced by the eyes of the birdwatchers, something clicked in his mind. The old Warehouse G that he was apparently hiding had been cleaned, cleared and abandoned during the end of the underground wars that he commended Albert’s quick-thinking of using it as his hideout: he knew the place like the back of his hand, it has hidden secrets and it’s pretty expendable.“I hope their plan goes well,” Caine said while he walked out of the orphanage to his car. He trusted them enough that he thought that his help wouldn’t be needed anyway.And he was right—about the plan part, the part about trust still had to be discovered by the flock cover in their shimmering plumage—because the moment they read the news, they were already done with their chirps of briefing; they just had to improvise a few.The first one to leave w
1st Death Chapter 45
DEATH; DEATH IS an enchantress. Whether you’re young or old; rich or poor; there will come a day when be ensnared by it and succumb to the grave, eventually. The love could’ve been looming over your cotton-soft heart since your birth, or an acquired intimacy for it one day while sat in the wool; for as long as one had as ever trod shoe-leather.Those were some of the thoughts Venin had the moment his country had been attacked by its neighbour with their tanks and their bombs; and their bombs and their guns. And as his head thought about how the world had always been a roundabout of chaos, like Thanos, he longed more and more for the approval of death.Before the hardships he went through, he never wanted to experience it first-hand; that’s why in his younger years, he strove for his passion—acting. But now that all those theatre masks, stage play and bongo drumming had been replac
1st Death Chapter 44
EVER SINCE AUGUST came out of the room of deceitful contemptuous tête-à-têtes, there’d been some weird air discharging from his pores that caught Bright off-guard. It wasn’t an obvious one, because he still is the same person in the mannerisms in his actions and words and the entire personality, but there’s just something that he can’t locate even looking at the 88x94-foot map steady on his driving. He’s perspiring buckets when he asked again, “Sir, what happened there?” And like the 17 times he asked, 17 times there wasn’t any reply. That happened a few times before, so Bright didn’t really attribute that to anything rather other than him having found out some really critical information. Bright waited patiently minding his inaudible Ps and Qs to not overstep the mark secured by a portcullis guarding his Sherlockian mind palace. After a few moments more of Bright camping the premises, the hydraulic winches started releasing the drawbridge to what August was
1st Death Chapter 43
THE BRICK BLOCKS withstood the trickle in heat as the room warmed up more from the summer reign over the two reconveners after their brief one-week recess of various tasks. Caine, upon losing his ship of an enforcer was grief-stricken for about 30 standard drinks, emerged a new monarch of his own devising where he concluded to himself that he—like a certain 1970 musical comedy—is the company. And as frightened as he was of dying without the fall of the empire that cost him a hundred people who worked side by side by side, he’s more frightened of letting them roam about while he sat on his chair, being alive. So, unusual for him it may be, he asked for help personally from a person capable enough to withstand the intensity of his words; but is also proficient enough that it won’t be a hindrance to his problem-solving. August, on the other end of the seat, had a less emotionally jarring week; but rather a pretty enervating one for his getting’ old eyes. Togethe
1st Death Chapter 42
THE BUILDING WAS settling, but not more than Von; the doors were unhinged, but not more than Von; the woodworks were sapped, but not more than Von; the downfall of the warehouse was overtaxation, but so was Von’s. For as the wind whispered through the windows of their rustic solace, so did Albert’s story—though his ear to absorb the few one he found really easy to comprehend; like the Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris song story that he had with Margaret. Because even though he couldn’t find the strength and face to admit it, that experience they had was a mouse squeaker from probably one of the world’s most hopeless place. But what he can’t put twenty of his fingers on, was how did Caine “erase her memory” like erasing chalk from a blackboard. “It’s hard to comprehend, but it’s a higher for of hypnosis. I, myself can only do very little.” Albert also explained why the mind-wipe was important to the Baron’s reputation. “Marge knew so much, so Pierre just locked those
1st Death Chapter 41
“IT WAS A weird first meeting for the three of us because it was mine and Alexis’ first date; and Albert was just suddenly there.” That was how she felt the first time he got to sit with them, being an advocate for discomfiture around the table.She also noted that that exact was the time their friendship bloomed into what they had that today. They shared the entirety of three years together laughing, crying and cramming the nights off. It even got to the point that the introverted Albert and the skeptical Margaret fully embraced the 1st of every month’s tradition of having “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit” as their war cry when they found out about the intensity of the subjects. They dowsed themselves in the light superstitions in order to back their intense studies hard; because with their experience, being really, really smart is not enough to guarantee their safety from the thin ice under their feet.Every now and then, Alexis
1st Death Chapter 40
THE BAR SCENE got a little bit quitter as the gradient of colour faded to a cadaverous whites and greys while the Black-Eyed Peas’ electronic rap dance music scratched a disc for a halt; all to simultaneously look at Albert unfamiliar with the situation he was in. His date just left him stranded at the middle of the dance floor for an unknown reason and abandoned his boogieing soul ass and thighs.The noises all went back to him when he got tapped on the shoulder by Alexis.“Abe?”“Alex? What are you doing here?”“Ware you doing here, all by yourself? Where’s—”“No reason.” He started walking towards the stool by the bartender with Alexis following him.Alexis was contemplating it, but he decided on it after a while. “You should come sit with us.”Albert okayed after a bit more push-and-pull arguments to later find himself seated with Alexis and his
1st Death Chapter 39
THE ROOM SMELLED of typical guy smell, which was not a smelly smell, but a smell nonetheless. The brunet coming through, though, even during his first day, was accustomed to the weirdness of the scent. What he was not so keen about, was the scene he found while getting into the room he'll be spending at least 4 years in. The person he was supposed to be roommates with was dancing some sort of dance while chanting for several gods and goddesses of luck. He shared the sentiment of felicity, but the methods looked so cliché. “Excuse me?” he addressed the man. "Is this room 1-118?" With him realizing the guy at the door, the blond dancer didn’t stop his rituals, but just pushed him inside, locked the door and gave him a small cup. “I’m not thirsty,” The cup-giver still wasn’t relenting in his actions while he looked for something in his bag. The confused conformist waited patiently until his got filled with some alcoholic substance;
