When the punk had gotten to the detective agency, she noticed Heather had gotten there before her today, which wasn't unusual as she had always been quite punctual.
While she was thinking of the previous night, an anxious shiver ran the length of her spine. She had no idea what would happen today. She hoped it wouldn't be anything too mortifying.
Keeping her composure, the blue haired detective strode confidently into the agency and nodded a greeting to the receptionist as she made her way over to her office and set down her things.
After which, she went to knock on the door to her boss's office. However, on her way there, she suddenly felt someone slip their arms around her waist.
Quite surprised, she turned around to face the culprit, to be met with Heather pressing her face against Iris'a shoulder.
Cheeks heating up from embarrassment, Iris quickly shoved the girl away. This however, did not ruin the peppy blonde's mood. "Hey, cutie! Good morning!" Heather beamed, obviously happy to see Iris. Iris sighed and punched the bridge of her nose, annoyed with her partner's unprofessionalism.
"Stick to Ms. Schumaker at work, alright, Ms. Valentine?" She asked hotly. The shorter lady quickly regained her composure. "Of course. Good morning, Ms. Schumaker!" She then smiled and turned back around to head to her own office. "Morning." The punk said with less excitement.
As the beautiful distraction stride away, Iris got back to the task at hand and knocked on the boss's door. After the second knock, the door opened to reveal a well dressed man with dyed red hair, smiling.
"Good morning, Iris! How may I help you?"
Iris put up a hand in greeting.
"Morning, chief. Have there been any updates to the case?" she asked, hardworking as ever.
"How many times do I have to tell you, please just call me Ross!" the man exclaimed, feigning annoyance with a grin.
"Right. Sorry b- Ross.."
The blue haired girl apologized, not accustomed to calling her supervisors by their names so casually.
"Don't worry about it! Anyways, it's not really that much of a discovery but we did get something! We believe we may possess something that belongs to our murderous fiend." Ross explained excitedly.
The punk straightened up quickly at this new piece of information and inhaled sharply.
"Why wasn't I informed of this sooner?" The detective asked sternly yet respectfully. He was her boss, after all.
The shorter man smiled apologetically.
"I wanted you to have one night off. Get some sleep, at least for one night! You bust your ass for this business 24/7, Iris!"
Iris nodded slowly in understanding. "Alright, then. Thank you. Now what is this incriminating piece of evidence we got?!" She inquired.
The chief motioned for her to follow him inside his office, went over to a drawer, and opened it, revealing an evidence bag.
He handed it over to Iris.
Donning gloves, she wasted no time digging into it, pulling out a thin, blue ballpoint pen. "A pen..?" She asked skeptically.
His previous silly demeanor replaced now by a more serious one, Ross nodded.
"Despite not knowing whether not they've ever touched it with their bare hands, we're hoping for at least one fingerprint so we can figure something out about this person. On their last crusade, Ms. Valentine saw them drop this pen while they were in a rush to evade capture. It might not be a lot, but it's something. As soon as our Analyst gets here, I'll have them on it."
Iris nodded. "Tell Axel good luck for me." She said as she left. She made a mental note to thank Heather later.
"I will and good luck to you, too, with that riddle!" Her boss called back, referencing the elaborate card the killer had purposefully left behind at the crime scene. A calling card, of sorts.
Iris nodded in response and went back to her office.
᯽
𝐴𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠
𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑚𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑.
𝐼𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠,
𝑡ℎe Head 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒
᯽
Iris sighed in frustration. They just received this card two days ago, which left 3 more days for the "head" to be killed.
She'd been staring at this card, reading every line and speculating for the past two days. And so far, nothing.
She was utterly stumped.
At first, she thought of a hospital, but after loads of fruitless searching, realized that she had been wrong.
Who would kill someone in a hospital, anyway?
She was stressing out over this and it was all that was clouding her mind. In a fit of petty rage, she grabbed a few pens off her desk and lobbed them at the wall facing her, met with many satisfying cracks.
"Whoa!" Heather, who'd been standing near the doorway, about to knock.
Iris noticed this and immediately apologized. "Ah, sorry! I didn't see you!" She said nervously.
Heather chuckled to herself, a little anxious at having nearly been the target of the perilous projectile protruding from the wall next to her.
"It's fine! You're clearly spending way too much time freaking out about this! Maybe some time away from the office could help.. maybe with me.... maybe at that new teahouse down the street?" The blonde offered hopefully. The punk sighed, dropping her head into her hands.
She contemplated saying no, but decided that she did need it.
Plus, there was the added bonus of a super cute companion that was quite appealing.
"Sure, Ms. Valentine." The shorter girl beamed. "Please, call me Heather!" The taller grinned. "Then you may call me Iris."
𖧷
Once the detectives had made their way over to the teahouse, with Ross's permission, Iris secured a table while Heather ordered for them both (Iris had told her what she wanted before she sat down).
Iris had been dreading this all day.
Finally being face to face with that girl. Alone, with no bosses around to make sure they were working.
Internally, she was stressing the hell out, just knowing that that blonde girl was going to bring last night up.
On the outside, she remained calm.
She refused to lose her cool and make a scene in the middle of a busy tea shop. She'd already been called crazy enough times in her life.
She didn't feel the need to add to that number.
Still feeling anxious, she began to quietly bounce her leg under the table, wondering what was taking that bubbly cheerleader so long.
Iris glanced toward the counter and saw Heather, struggling to carry their teas and a large box, and laughed to herself.
"Need some help?" She asked teasingly as she walked to the quivering girl and graciously took the tray, leading the way back to their table.
"Yes! Thank you!" Heather replied, following Iris.
They sat down across from one another and grabbed their drinks.
"So, what's in the box?" Iris asked, always the curious one.
The shorter girl smiled playfully. "Your worst nightmaaaaaaaare!" She dragged out the "a" in a shitty zombie impression, sticking her arms out limply for effect.
"Oh my god, you absolute nerd!" Iris giggled at her friend's antics.
"Seriously though, it's just cookies." The blonde replied, flipping the lid to get a full view of the frosted-to-perfection delicacies.
"You know I have a GIANT sweet tooth." She said humorously.
"God, how do you get by eating so much sugar and still manage to stay so thin?" Iris asked, poking fun at her friend's sugar obsession.
"Like you have room to talk! You probably drink, like, five gallons of coffee per day! How are you not bouncing off the walls all the time?" The short girl challenged, smiling at her successful jab.
"I handle caffeine differently than most people." The blue haired girl replied proudly.
"Right. Anyways," the blonde said, changing the subject.
"We need to talk about last night."
Oh. Shit.
⚠️ Sexual language and sexual situations
You have been warned ⚠️
"Haha... what about it?" Iris asked, nervously scratching the back of her neck.
The blonde leaned in closer to the punk's face, dangerously close to her lips.
"Are we just going to ignore it or....are we going to ignore the fact that you had me flipping around like a fish out of water last night?" Heather said bluntly. Iris sputtered for an answer, while feeling Heather's breath on her lips, which was driving her crazy. She was about to close the distance between them when the blonde spoke, "Allow me to rephrase. Was that just a one night stand or do you want to be my girlfriend?" She asked smugly, hoping to catch the blue haired girl off guard.
Instead, Iris smiled smugly, too.
"Is that an invitation?" She asked with a wink.
Now Heather was the one that was sputtering, cheeks darkening, leaving Iris to laugh at her.
The punk took a sip of her tea, then pulled out her wallet and slid the cost of her drink to Heather and stood, grabbing her drink.
"You get back to me on that, Princess." She pat the blonde's head and left out the door, leaving a very flustered Heather in her wake.
𖧷
The moment Iris stepped foot into the agency, Ross immediately run up to her excitedly.
"Iris, you're back! Axel analyzed that pen you discovered and we found a piece of extravagant evidence!" The man exclaimed.
Iris met his excited eyes and smiled determinedly. "And that would be..?" She prompted, constantly amused by her boss's doglike behavior.
"Our culprit.... iiiiiiiiis... drumroll, please!" He requested.
Iris smiled goofily and bat her hands against her thighs in response.
"A woman!! The dna tests came back to say she's female! We're dealing with a lady killer, literally!" He laughed at his own joke.
Iris chuckled. "Ross, that's awesome! Hopefully we'll find out more on our next crusade!" The redhead beamed. Then Iris went to thank Axel.
They had done good.
𖧷
On the far outskirts of town, while the policemen celebrated their small victory, a mysterious figure sat on the roof of a tall building, plotting their next scheme.
A gentle breeze blew by and she tucked a blonde strand behind her ear.
This town wasn't going to know what hit them.
She leaned back down on the ground and looked up, admiring the way the birds glided across the sky like the paper airplanes did back in elementary school, filling her with nostalgia and childlike delight.
School.
Right.
Her momentary cheerful mood gone, replaced by one of unbridled resentment.
Now she remembered why she started killing in the first place.
☾