RoseBlood

Fourteen Years Ago

"See, you said the relationship happened fourteen years ago, right? And your dad's death happened four years ago. What's fourteen plus four?"

"Eighteen," Elias answers, frowning in interest.

"Exactly. Which, in my head, is being with my dad before I was born, finding comfort in your dad fourteen years later, and then coming back to study me and my parents' routine before they were killed on my birthday. The timings could go something like that. We don't know for sure. But it's my best bet."

"So, describe it to me," Emerson says, opening up his iPad and tapping on the Notes app. "How could everything have gone? Tell me the full story."

I blink, taken aback slightly by how intently Emerson is watching me, listening to me, but appreciating it all the same. "I don't have all the answers, Emerson, this is just how I think it could have gone, based on what I know."

"That's what we need to hear," he assures me. "Even if it's something along those lines, it gives us a clearer picture."

"I have a clear enough picture," I say. "But the only thing missing is who. Still, I'll tell you what I think it went like.

"My dad met the RoseBlood Killer before I was born. He was too nice to them, and maybe, maybe, he knowingly let their relationship grow into something bigger than it should have been. I mean, my parents were married before I was born, because they had similar interests, and their families knew each other, so it just worked, I don't know. My mum was never really a romantic, but Dad was nice and understanding to pretty much everyone."

"When did your parents marry?" Emerson asks me, and I stop talking for a brief moment, a tinge of annoyance in my voice.

"My dad was twenty-two, my mum was twenty-one," I say quickly.

"Let her keep going," Edith shushes him with curious eyes, and Emerson nods, raising his brows in a sort of surrender.

"Thank you," I glance at her, continuing. "So, they meet, and Dad lets it go too far. Maybe he liked them, the difference in personalities between my mum and them, whatever. But then, he finds out that I'm due to be born. He has to step up as a parent, take responsibility, which includes letting the killer go. They're in denial, absolutely upset, and Dad no doubt tries to calm them. To stay friends, or something. I don't think he could ever be enemies with anyone, not with his personality. So he talks to them, apologises, and reasons with them to try to get them to see it all from his perspective. That he's going to be a father, and he's already a married man, and he has to face the truth that this isn't right."

"What does the killer say?" Edith breathes in wonder, and my eyes brighten a little at her enthusiasm, carrying on.

"They make him promise," I tell her. "I don't know how. I think that they might have worded it weirdly or something, and my dad, being so eager to please and heal hurt feelings, agreed without knowing what it was he was agreeing to."

"And what was the promise?" Elias questions, just as immersed as his sister.

"That, after I grow up, and the responsibilities are lessened, they could be together again. Because, look at it from the RoseBlood Killer's point of view. Things should go back to the way they were after this hiccup, right? He'll be back to Bobby Cassia, and having a wife shouldn't stop him, because it didn't before, did it? For them, it's worth the wait, even eighteen years, when I'm basically no longer considered a child or a minor. It's worth it, because after that, they can be together forever."

"That's stupid," Elias comments, and I nod.

"Yeah, it is. But you're thinking logically, like anyone would. The RoseBlood Killer isn't logical. They're delusional. They've found their one true love, and they'll pay the price of patience if it means they get him at the end of it all. The killer finds comfort in Danny, but then she gets spooked and feel panicked and threatened when he sees how obsessive she is and confronts her about it. She's threatened enough to murder your father, because they're not letting anything else get in the way of their relationship. He might not have known their name or my dad, but he knew the gist of it, and him being an investigator, he could find out more. They had to stop him, and they did."

The Tyrels are silent, except for the tapping from Emerson onto his screen's keyboard, his expression unreadable yet again.

"She eases her way back into the Cassias' lives," I state, "somehow. Watching from afar, or close by. Close enough to know our routines off by heart, to know how to get in and out of the house, to see what's changed and what hasn't. Then, at my birthday party, they lure Dad into the basement, along with Mum, who he usually runs to for support or advice when something big is going on. He rejects the RoseBlood Killer's proposal, and the killer's distraught. They both die. And then they realise. This is all my fault. If I had never been born, Bobby would never have reconsidered, turned away from them and settled into family life. I have to pay. I have to die too. There's the build-up of fear and tension they felt for fourteen years, torturing me mentally with notes and threats, until they decide that it's time.

"Clarissa wasn't part of the plan, but they let something slip to her at the shop that they thought about ever since. And, sure enough, Clarissa realised the truth, for all she was so timid. She sensed that something was off, and she was going to ruin this chain of events that had to happen. She dies, and that's okay, because that only adds to my terror. And they're out there, right now, waiting until I'm vulnerable and alone, to drag me back down into the basement, somewhere cold and dark and deathly, with a rose in one hand, and Danny's gun in the other."

Just like that, I've finished my story, leaving all four of us breathless, coming to terms with the puzzle pieces that fit together so horribly well together. Emerson's stopped typing, and is looking at me with a stunned glint in his typically indifferent dark eyes. Elias' mouth is open, only closing when he makes himself blink a few moments later. Edith's hand is over her mouth, running her fingers across her lips absentmindedly. I relax into my chair, the pleased, small smile on my face fading as I think.

"That's what I think happened," I say quietly. "But the one thing that's missing is who. Because..."

"'You thought it was her,'" Elias quotes the RoseBlood Killer's latest note, and I retreat into silence, nodding.

We don't have a clue.