Song recommendation: All The Good Girls Go To Hell by Billie Eilish
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Every day that I spent in the Roach house was worse than the last. I felt like an outsider -which I obviously was- but Styles was treated like he was a part of their family. Even back at the precinct his charm was undeniable and everyone liked him. He was the perfect man in their eyes. They didn't know any better. There were even situations where we'd been in court, testifying against a perp, and their wives would be making eyes at him while he was up at the podium. I'm not sure if he ever acted on it, and if he did, good for him.
It frustrated me that I could be so exceptional as a detective, but absolutely shit at playing the part of a rich city girl. I should've been better at this. I grew up in Portland, and we were wealthy. We didn't have money to the same extent as the Court of Four Thorns, it wasn't overly extravagant, but we had enough to send both Adam and I to private school. I was taught table manners and every day etiquette, we often went to formal dinners and gatherings. I could be a rich girl, I had been a rich girl, but making friends is where I draw the line.
I shouldn't have resented Styles for being so likeable, it was furthering the case, he was getting intel. There was just a voice screaming in the back of my head saying that I should be the one doing that. A quiet scream that was somehow also deafening. This was my case after all. I was the one who brought it to the rest of the squad. I wasn't about to only have a minor part in this massive case.
"Niall what do I do?" I sat on my bed with a handheld mirror in front of me, coating my eyelashes thickly in mascara. "I'm not getting any information here."
'Are you asking me for help? Are you sick?'
"Is that not why you're here? Give me some advice buddy." I sighed in exasperation, I didn't have the energy for his bullshit right now.
'Okay well Uh...' He thought for a minute. 'I think you need to get out of the house for starters. Lucille hates you.'
"Understatement of the century." I scoffed.
'How could anyone hate you?'
"I hope you realize that this is coming out of your mouth, and approximately three weeks ago you were screaming at me in an office."
'I was a different man back then. I've matured.'
"Bullshit."
I could hear the eye roll through the mic. 'You've got to move out to another house. We technically could bring you back for a week and we could cover it up by saying you're visiting Nathan, when in reality, you'd be visiting me.'
"No." I shook my head. "I suggested that to Styles before I was sent out and I understand why he said no. We're way too close to the precinct."
'We can be really discreet about it. I promise.'
"I know you're just saying this because you want me back home, but I have to stay here. We haven't even made a dent in this place."
'I'm just worried about you-'
"Of course you are." I interrupted him. "Stop it."
'You've already made an enemy.' He sighed. 'Please don't get mad at me for saying this-'
"Oh that's a great set up."
'I just think that you need to stop being yourself so much.'
"What does that even mean? How do I stop being myself?"
'You're acting like Ophelia, and you need to stop. You aren't her anymore. You're Arabella.'
"I have been acting like Arabella. You just don't know me enough to notice a difference." I shrugged.
'I don't need to know you well to know that you've got a pretty fiery temper. Arabella doesn't have one, she went to finishing school in Paris.'
"I went to finishing school." I defended.
'Couldn't tell.'
"I came to classes hungover most of the time, but I still went." I muttered.
'All I'm saying is that you just have to try a little harder to not be you.'
"Yeah I'll try." I sighed as I slapped some lip gloss on. "I'll talk with Styles and see what we can do."
'Good. You've made it through a week.'
"Only like a million more to go."
'Work faster then.'
"Shut up."
I talked to Styles that day. It was so much harder to get him alone than I thought it would be.
"Hey Alex, could you-"
"Sorry Bell, I've got business with Pierre today."
Pierre was the head of the house. The big man.
"Alex can we talk now?"
"I'm so sorry, I'm going out with Dani."
I was getting fed up. It was already past dinner by the time I could get a hold of him.
"Alex I need to talk to you." I said sternly. "It's about business matters."
I made sure to stress the importance of this talk because I needed him to know that this was Ophelia trying to get to him, not Arabella making small talk.
"What is so important that you've been bugging me all day?" He sighed as he closed his bedroom door.
"I need to get out of this house." I instructed.
"Like you need to go back to the precinct?" He looked at me in confusion.
"No, I need to live somewhere else." I shook my head as I sat on his bed. "We need to cover more ground. You seem to fit in just fine here, but I don't."
"Lucille?"
"Precisely."
"I've seen that chick kill seven guys in the past two days alone." He scratched the back of his neck. "She's a bit of a psycho."
"You've seen it?" My eyes went wide. "Have you..."
"I haven't had to yet, but I'm safe if it comes to it right?"
"I'm pretty sure. I mean, have you ever killed someone before?" I fiddled with the zipper of the sweater I was wearing.
"Not an innocent person." His eyes went dark.
"You've killed someone?" I was taken aback at his ability to confess so quickly.
"It was self defense." He looked at the ground. "I was already in the force. The guy was going to kill me."
"I'm sorry."
"It's just part of the job." He let out a quick breath and shifted his demeanour to his normal, charming self. "I'll do it again if I have to."
"Do you think that I'll-"
"I can't say for sure." He gave me a sympathetic look. "How are you with death?"
"Experienced." I replied simply.
He didn't need context. He understood.
"I'm going to talk to the McBride's. I believe they have an extra wing of their house."
"A whole wing?" I looked at him in surprise.
"Apparently one of their kids died a while ago so they've got a big empty wing."
"Who was it? Would I have known who they were?"
"Probably not. It happened maybe three years ago. It was their oldest daughter." He shook his head. "I think you'll like it there better anyway."
"What makes you say that?" I raised an eyebrow.
"The McBride's are a little more... feisty."
"Oh and I would make a perfect addition then right?" I gave him an annoyed look.
'That's like adding kerosene to a bonfire.' Niall added.
"I think you'll fit right in with them." He assured me. "I'll let you know as soon as I have an answer for you."
"Thank you." I let out a heavy breath. "Just try not to get too distracted. Remember why we're here."
"I know why we're here Carter." He used my real name, which caught me off guard. "I'm just great at acting."
"Oh yeah sure." I shook my head as I walked out of his room.
As I strolled down the hallway, I felt the air shift. It was colder than normal. Goosebumps arose on my skin. Something was off. The corridor was scarily silent. There was no noise coming from any of the rooms. It wasn't late either. Most of the family would've been gathering for drinks in the basement, and sometimes I could hear them through the vents on the walls. I didn't hear anything tonight.
When I walked into my bedroom I stopped in my tracks. I smelled a strong floral scent, and my window was wide open, letting in the cool spring air. Someone had been in my room. I treaded carefully, hearing the floorboards creak underneath my feet. My breathing was heavy, but I tried to stay silent. Niall was silent too.
I approached the door to my bathroom that was closed as it was most of the time. Whoever had broken into my room either didn't touch my bathroom, or they were standing right behind that door. I looked around the room quickly. I silently reached into my nightstand and pulled out the handgun I'd been keeping in there just in case something like this ever happened.
I held the gun out in front of me. Any rational person would be a shaky mess at this point, but I'd been training for situations like this for the latter half of my life. My hands were still, planted on the gun. I used my foot to turn the door handle. I braced myself to be attacked as I kicked the door open.
What I saw in the bathroom was worse than an attacker.
My breath hitched in my throat, the gun dropped to the floor with a clatter. I couldn't make a sound as my brain processed the scene in front of me. My eyes squeezed shut almost immediately. The first thing to resonate was the smell. It was like someone had poured a bottle of Dior perfume all over the floor. It was strong. I coughed because my nose wasn't prepared for the pungent scent. The room was dry. The intruder hadn't touched any water sources.
'Ophelia.' Niall sounded breathless. He could see what I didn't want to look at. 'What is that?'
"I... I can't see." I managed.
'You need to open your eyes, but I need you to stay calm.' His tone was steady, but I could tell that he was trying really hard not to panic.
"I don't want to."
'You have to.' He instructed. 'Direct order. Give yourself a count of three.'
One.
Two.
Three.
I opened my eyes to the scene. My first instinct was to vomit, but I clenched my jaw, and froze up. I couldn't take my eyes off of the body that was laying in my shower. I don't know what was worse, the fact that it was a dead body, or the fact that I knew who it was. Upon closer inspection, I recognized the man as Carlos. He was the guy Horan and I had been following to the meetups. The only reason I recognized him was because his face was unscathed. The rest of his body however, was torn to scraps. His throat looked like someone had taken a cheese grater to his skin. His hands had been cut off, and his torso had been slashed to the point of no survival.
As I got closer to the body, the smell of perfume became more potent. It was as if the killer had poured the bottle into his wounds, which could easily have been the case, considering the wounds looked extremely irritated. Perfume in a wound would do that.
My next thought had me wondering if he'd been killed in my bathroom, or merely dragged in. The pool of blood around him definitely wasn't large enough to have been from the initial blow. He was killed somewhere else, brought to my room, and set up to scare me. I examined the wounds closer, and saw that there were a few fresh gashes on his thighs. That's where the blood was coming from. But why would the killer touch him again? Did they just want to make a mess for me?
That couldn't be it. I had a terrible feeling in the back of my head.
I slowly turned around, scared of what I was about to find.
There was blood. Fresh blood. It was dripping down my mirror. There were words written in it. Two words that burned bright red into my skull. Two words that I will never forget. Two words that made me want to run for my life.
'Get out.'
Below the threatening statement was a handprint. The last finger had been wiped away. A four fingered hand, pressed in blood. Four fingers. Four families.
I knew exactly who'd done it.
'Firefly?'
I couldn't speak. What do I do now?
'Talk to me Phil. Get out of your head.'
"I-" I felt my body grow warm. Incredibly warm. I was sweating. "Niall."
'What? What can I do?'
"Help." I started heaving breathlessly.
'Philly, it's- it's okay.' He sounded just as scared as I was. 'You're safe right now.'
He didn't know that! If I was anything in that moment I definitely wasn't safe!
"What do I- Who? Where?" I panicked.
'Go find Styles. Don't think about anything else, just go find him right now.'
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My mind was a mess, but my appearance was the same as it had been ten minutes ago.
God Ophelia. Pull yourself together.
And that was it. I shut off every bit of emotion I had been feeling. I walked out of the bathroom, out of the bedroom, and down the hallway. I didn't knock when I walked into Styles' bedroom. I didn't care what I walked in on. I'd obviously been able to handle worse.
"Hey what the fuck?" He sat up from where he was laying on his bed, shirtless, and reading a book. You could see all of the tattoos that had been inked into him, the biggest being a moth on his chest. It was beautiful, and it was the first time I'd seen it.
"I need your help with something." I stated clearly.
"Again? Are you kidding me?" He shook his head in annoyance.
"You need to come with me right now. This isn't an option."
"Fine, but this better be important." He got off of the bed and walked past me.
I couldn't lie, in that moment, with his messy hair, his tattoos, and the fact that he was six foot three, Styles was making me feel a little nervous. His biceps were very pronounced, and he smelled nice. That was the point where I knew I was delusional. I was currently being portrayed as his sister, and I'd just hooked up with his best friend a few weeks ago. I did objectively like Styles more than I liked Horan, but it wasn't the same. He didn't give me the same feeling deep down in my bones. He never would've seen me as a firefly. He was hot though. I'll give him credit for that.
"Holy mother of god." Styles said as he stood in my bathroom doorway.
"Is this important enough for you?" I raised an eyebrow.
"If you would've said it was a dead guy, I probably would've moved a little faster!" He looked back at me. "What the fuck happened within the three minutes I was talking to you?"
"Does it look like I fucking know?" I turned my hands up and shook my head.
"Last time I checked, you were the top detective!"
"Shh!" My eyes went wide. "You have no idea who could be listening right now."
"Well it's obviously not him!" He gestured over to Carlos. "Oh it's him." His tone dropped into a sympathetic wince.
"You knew about this?" I looked at him with wide eyes.
"I knew he was dead but I didn't think he'd end up in your shower!" He cried. "Oh my god what is that?" He pointed to the mirror.
"That is... something that I am very very scared about." I pursed my lips.
"I guess I'd better talk to the McBride's sooner than I was planning." He let out a breath. "And oh god that perfume! Is that yours?"
"No."
"It's familiar." He furrowed his eyebrows.
"It's Lucille's."
"Are you sure?"
"Almost positive." I nodded. "Who else would've done this?"
"There's no way to be sure, but you need to move out as soon as possible. Start packing your things now."
"I don't think that packing my bags is what I'm most worried about at the moment." I let my expression drop. "Mainly because there's a body in my bathroom and I have no idea what to do with it!"
"I'll call some of the guys." He sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "You go sit in my room for a bit. Let your lover boy talk you through it."
I gave him the finger and left the room promptly.
What I'd recently learned was that the Court of Four Thorns had thousands of guys working for them, and they were easily disposable. Carlos was just one of many. If I was going to spend potentially months in this place, I'd have to desensitize myself a little more. Seeing a body in person was much different than watching it over a screen. I tried to not think about him. Carlos was a criminal, but he could've had a family. What if he had children? Thinking about this, and being alone, sent me into a spiral. What if Adam was one of these men who was working the scams? What if it had been Adam who'd been torn to shreds on my bathroom floor?
'What are you thinking about?' Niall asked as I sat on Styles' bed.
"I haven't had a concise thought since I entered this hellhole." I admitted. "Everything feels like a fever dream."
'I know.' He empathized, even though he had no idea what I was going through.
"I'm not going to get much sleep tonight." I told him.
'I wasn't expecting you to.'
"Do you think this is as big of a threat as I'm making it out to be?" I questioned. "I don't know if this is normal."
'We get death threats at the precinct every day.' He told me. 'The majority of the time we know that nobody will ever follow through. But this isn't a random civilian. This is a crime family. I think you should be taking every precaution you can. Because these people will gladly kill you to get rid of you.'
"That's reassuring. I'm not going crazy."
'You're not. You're okay.'
Styles ended up getting the body out of my room relatively quickly. I had no idea where they took Carlos' body, and I didn't care to find out. When I walked into the bedroom, I didn't want to be alone. Styles had put my gun back in the nightstand, so at least I had some form of self defense with me.
Laying in the bed felt useless. I wasn't going to sleep. The image of Carlos' lifeless body sitting in the room next to me had been seared into my memory, and it would be a while before I could repress any of it.
"Niall?" I whispered out into the dark.
'Yes my dear?'
I wish he'd stop calling me that.
"Will you stay awake with me? You don't have to go into the precinct tomorrow."
'I would've done it either way.' He said softly. 'I'm always here.'
"But you're not. You're not really here." I sighed.
'This'll all be over soon enough, just you wait.'
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Hi!!
This is probably my favourite chapter that I've written so far! The action is ramping up! I hope you guys have been paying close attention because that's important. Also, if you follow the tik tok account (flickrsunflwr28) you might find some clues, or teasers that you might want to remember.
Anyway, Thanks so much for reading!
My endless love,
-Kallie <3