The Maple Murders

Chapter 4 - Puppet on a string.

Her heart sank as Ash emerged from the office with a smirk on her face. "Fancy seeing you here," Ash said, but her tone quickly switched to a frown.

"Is everything okay?!" Emma panicked. "Why did he call you in? Are you in trouble?"

"Everything is fine." Ash uttered coldly. "He wants to see you."

Emma's body instantly tightened up. Her shoulders pulled back; her face frozen with worry. She began to fidget with the clicky-pen in her pocket, the only thing that helped her to ground herself when she was in a state of high stress such as this one.

The older woman raised an eyebrow at Emma as she watched her reaction. "Don't work yourself up," she grunted, clearly sick of Emma's constant worries and wanting her to calm down and handle things like a mature adult. "It's not like he's going to believe you if you let the truth sweat off your head! It would be much easier for the both of us if you didn't act so pathetic."

After quickly glancing around the room to check if no one was coming, she grabbed Emma's shirt and dragged her to the side. Placing both her hands on Emma's shoulders, Ash looked straight into her hazel eyes with a piercing gaze.

"Manipulate him." she demanded, completely neglecting Emma's need for reassurance. "Gaslight him, sell him our precious lie, otherwise you'll be in handcuffs and—"

As Ash was about to continue her lecture, the door just behind the two women leading to the staff toilets swung open. A young woman exited with blonde hair tied up in a tight ponytail and light purple hairband. She wore light purple scrubs and small, studded purple earrings. She had eyes bluer than the ocean and perfectly shaped eyebrows, not a single mark or blemish in sight.

"Hi!" the young girl exclaimed, her voice friendly and energetic as she inquired about Nurse Ash's whereabouts. She had caught them off guard, leaving them confused and rather startled. Both women turned to look at one another, but they were unable to answer the blonde's question because they were still trying to process the unexpected encounter.

"Yes, I'm Nurse Ash," Ash said with a friendly yet professional demeanour. "Can I help you?"

A spark of joy lit in the young woman's eyes. "Oh my god, hi! I'm Charlotte, one of the new med students!"

"I thought you guys didn't start until April." Ash replied.

"Yeah, but we started early because of the lack of staff. New year, new start, right?!"

Emma let out a fake laugh with an awkward smile. "Right... Erm, I'm going to go, don't want to keep the old man waiting...!"

With Emma gone, Ash was left alone with the young med student Charlotte.

"So, when do we start?!" Charlotte asked giddy with excitement. Ash looked around the room quickly, struggling to come up with an excuse to leave the woman. "Uh...We actually have to wait a bit. It might be a while."

Luckily, Doctor Daniel Graham had just walked into the room, which prompted Ash to call him over. "Daniel, can you take this student for a moment?" Ash called out, and Daniel escorted the student away.

Ash breathed a deep sigh of relief, suddenly finding herself alone and grateful for the opportunity. Now was her chance to get to the basement and complete her exciting plan.

12:45 PM. Perfect.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

3 hours earlier...

Emma's raging fire had dwindled into a quiet ember as her anger cooled into regret. She quietly muttered to herself, "I... I don't know

if I want to do this anymore..."