A month ago:
Life at the mansion was exhausting and I was regretting staying more and more but didn't really have anything else to do. Zadimus hated me. I could see it on his face every second we crossed paths. And Gardenia didn't like me any better. I did my best being nice to her but sometimes I really wanted to slap some sense into her. I couldn't hit someone innocent so I just isolated myself. But I couldn't disappear completely either because I was scared of when Bartholomew would take Bonnie with him next. Things had been calm at the mansion lately but that didn't mean it would stay that way.
Therefore I spent my days with Bonnie when Bartholomew didn't appear out of nowhere to annoy me. He would appear every now and then and I couldn't relax for a second. Even sitting in the library with Bonnie, I couldn't help looking at the door every minute to see if Bartholomew opened it.
"Are you okay?"
Of course Bonnie immediately noticed my state and looked at the door herself:
"Are you waiting for someone?
-No. I was just looking around.
-Are you sure everything is fine? You look quite pale lately."
I sighed.
"I am tired.
-Do you want me to bring you some coffee? Or some tisane?
-I'm okay. Have you found something?"
Bonnie turned her tablet around before handing it to me:
"Aed Neverbite, 26 years old. He has a sister and a brother and has a PHD in metaphysics."
I raised my eyebrows:
"Wow. That's impressive."
I looked at the picture and in fact that was me. At least it was my picture and it seemed I existed in this world too. Bonnie could never get a phone or a tablet in the original story but I convinced Bartholomew rather easily to lend us one. Did he really take a liking to me? Just thinking about it made me shudder and I preferred to ignore his reasons. The most important thing was that now I could look into my life here peacefully.
"The Aed here started working as soon as he got his diploma but left his job a year later.
-Why?
-I don't know."
Bonnie was really good at stalking people and she already found way more than I did but it was still not a lot:
"Did you find an address?
-Not yet.
-Friends?
-There are a few people that have pictures with you.
-Perfect. Could you find their numbers?"
Bonnie took back the tablet while nodding:
"Of course.
-And did you find something about you?
-Nothing. I am not sure that I exist in this world.
-But why would I exist and not you? It doesn't make any sense."
Bonnie shrugged and we went back to our stalking. After another ten minutes of digging, Bonnie extended the tablet back to me:
"Look. This guy is your ex employer, Cirro Redbay. Maybe you just forced yourself to smile but you didn't seem on bad terms and I didn't find anything about you being fired or having a fight at work. This is Ridge, he is one of your ex colleagues and college friends. And this is Heliodor, she is in some pictures with you.
-How are you so fast? You should be a private detective, not cooped up here."
Bonnie laughed but didn't say anything. I was only half joking however...
"Maybe you could try contacting them.
-How? I don't know my passwords.
-Don't tell me Bartholomew doesn't have hackers.
-I don't want to ask him for help."
If I could, I wanted to avoid Bartholomew as much as possible and I didn't even know these people. They knew me but they didn't know the real me. They knew some Aed who looked exactly like me and it was rather confusing. I thought that I would be like Bonnie and wouldn't exist in this world but now that I saw the pictures I didn't know what to do. Should I give up on going back and start my new life here by reconnecting with these people? Or should I start from scratch? I had no idea what to do and waited to have some illumination. Until then I could only stay here and look after Bonnie.
"He seems to have a soft spot for you. I am sure he will help."
I grimaced.
"Don't say that. I don't want his soft spot."
Bonnie laughed.
"Okay, I won't mention it anymore.
-Thank you. And what about you? Would you like to get into contact with the people you know here?"
Bonnie thought about it for a second:
"Finding people that I know would be proof that I exist here. But at the end of the day I wouldn't know them and getting into contact with them would feel like me lying to them. Like I was pretending to be someone I wasn't."
I felt very sad for her suddenly and seeing my frown, Bonnie smiled:
"Don't worry, I made new friends here so I am okay.
-Friends? Plural?"
Bonnie smiled but I wasn't ready for this:
"Let's just move on. When do you plan on leaving here?
-I can't leave until I haven't told Bartholomew the truth.
-And you don't ever plan on telling him?"
Bonnie shook her head.
"We could run away together.
-Bartholomew would never let me go. You can leave as you wish but not me.
-I could take you in secret."
Bonnie smiled and I could see that she didn't believe in me at all.
"What? Do you think that I wouldn't be able to?
-It's not that. I believe in you, Aed but Bartholomew has eyes everywhere in the city. nothing can escape him.
-Except for his parents' killer."
Both of us froze and I knew that I went too far. I was a bit hurt by Bonnie's reaction when she seemed unconvinced by my proposition of running away. My competitive spirit woke up and I wanted to kidnap Bonnie just to prove to her that I was better than Bartholomew. I knew however that I was acting childish and shouldn't have said that so I tried my best to forget my hurt pride.
"Anyway, what I meant was: what are you going to do here? Are you going to follow him everywhere and help him find his parents' killer?
-Yes. I can't let a murderer run free."
If I remembered the story correctly, Bartholomew's next outing would be to a container. I didn't really remember why he went there because that was by the time when I started getting fed up with the story. I didn't even know who Bartholomew's family's murderer was because he started really getting into the investigation after he got together with Bonnie. Until then his outings were only superficial. Bartholomew didn't start investigating immediately because of the trauma but he took on the case at 17 years old. All I knew about the murderer was that it was a man with very big feet and muddy shoes who stabbed Bartholomew's mom 15 times and his dad 54 times. I remembered these details because it was a lot. A LOT. Too much to be a stranger.
Maybe Bonnie knew more than me about the killer having read another version of the story I had and having read more than me. However she didn't have more information than me which was a bit surprising.
"Is that all?"
Bonnie didn't have to say more because just as I feared, Bartholomew appeared in the library. I had completely forgotten about the door and jumped when I heard him come in:
"Were you doing something bad, kitten?"
Seeing his excited smile, I immediately felt nauseous. Bartholomew didn't even have time to take a step that he got hit by a book. When was he going to stop calling me that? I was hitting him, throwing things at him but it wasn't changing anything. Did I have to strangle him? I was ready to.
"You look rather agitated. Did you do something I should be worried about?"
I decided to ignore his teasing:
"Why are you here again?
-I missed you, kitten."
That was too much. I grabbed the tablet and threw it at Bartholomew. The latter did not avoid it this time and got hit right in the eyebrow. He immediately started bleeding and I froze. He always avoided everything. Why didn't he move this time? Usually he was driving me insane because I couldn't hurt him but now it was the other way around. Why didn't he budge?
"Is our kitten mad?"
I almost felt bad but the next second Bartholomew went back to smiling and I was looking for something else to throw. This guy was crazy.