I pushed past a crowd of people, even more fear arising inside of me as I got closer. We were in front of what happened to be Romain's small house, where he had moved into after he moved out of his parents' house. But. . .how could it be? Romain gave me a call, and then a minute later, he's reported dead? There's no way he could have been dead and people knew about it so quickly to spread it around in just one minute. There's no way police officers would get over to his house, see he's dead, and three police officers would come over to the palace to inform me in just one minute. I finally got to the front and rushed inside through the opened door. There's no way. . .!
I stopped short. They hadn't been kidding at all. They were now carrying Romain up to take him away. I looked at his face; it was so pale, so lifeless. I only looked away from him when they covered his face. I rushed over to one of the police officers. Something just wasn't adding up here. "Hey!" The officer turned around, giving me his attention. "When?" I let out the words. "When did he. . .?"
"Someone called the police department at 9:54 A.M informing that there was a dead body. That person was the delivery man. He said he found the door opened, which was so unlike Romain because he always liked to keep his door shut. Well, we got the call this morning, but looking at Romain, I say he's been dead since yesterday's night. Probably at 11:00 P.M."
"That can't be. . ." I took a step back as my voice trailed off. "No, maybe you got something wrong. He couldn't have died yesterday! That man couldn't have called you at that time!" I insisted, showing just how serious I was about this. "At 2 in the morning, Romain gave me a call telling me he was fine and all that. At exactly 10 in the morning, he gave me another call, showing me that he was fine. I heard him! It was his voice! There's no way he could have been found dead before he called me. That's impossible!"
"Well, I'm sorry, Your Majesty. We understand you're very upset about this, and so are we, but I'm not lying to you. We got a call from the delivery man at 9:54 A.M. We tried to hurry as best as we could and made it here at about 10:20 A.M."
I just couldn't believe this. Something wasn't adding up. I was sure it had been Romain who had called me. It was his phone number, it had been his voice. I looked around, and then my eyes widened when I noticed a phone sitting on the couch. I quickly rushed over to it and picked it up, turning it on. Dang it! I growled silently to myself to see that the phone needed a password to unlock. I had been so sure that I saved Romain. . . had been so sure that he was okay. How is it possible that he had died before he gave me a call. Something wasn't adding up. I looked around the place again, my eyes going dark. I needed to find out what was going on.
I remembered telling Romain that I sent two people to look after him. I had sent those two people over at 10:00 A.M, before Romain had given me a call. When I looked around the room, I could see those two standing side by side with each other. When they had gotten over here, they must have seen Romain dead and sent three other officers to tell me. My eyes then widened when I remembered something else. I rushed over to the same officer I had talked to before. "Do you perhaps. . ." I asked, getting his attention once again. ". . .have a note? Did any of you find a note?"
"Ah yes, now that you said that," The officer opened up his pocket and took out a folded piece of paper. I took it without hesitation, and for some reason, I already knew what it was going to say. I unfolded it and scanned it with my eyes, trying to read the note first as fast as I could, but before I could even finish with the note, someone grabbed it out of my hand. I gasped a little and looked up, seeing another one of the police officers standing right in front of me. I was about to snap, ask them to give me the note back, but I stayed in my spot, calm, waiting to hear the reason as to why he would grab the note.
"Your Majesty, this. . ." the officer started. "It's quite complicated, you see. We really don't want to put you on the spot and all, but. . . I really do find it absurd that Butler Romain would end himself over such a reason. We've read what the note says, and he's pointing fingers at you, so as of now, we have to keep a good lookout for you and ask you a few questions. Again, I find it absurd that he ended himself because of you and your bad behavior, because you've only been queen for like two days, and-"
"Wait, hold up!" I stopped him before he could continue. His words not only were confusing, but they were shocking. "Me? I was the reason Romain did this to himself? How could you possibly say that? Just like you said, I haven't even been queen for that long, and then suddenly all fingers are pointing at me for this?! What in the world?!" My eyes went down to the note he was still clutching in his hand. "Let me have that. Let me read it and see for myself. You had absolutely no reason to have snatched that note out of my hands." I don't know what was more insulting: the fact that they said Romain wrote such words on the note, or the fact that it actually seemed like they believed the words without even knowing the full truth. I knew Romain, even though we hadn't exactly known each other that well. He was a kind person, and I'd never bring myself to hurting such a poor guy.
One of the other officer nudged the one that had spoken to me, and the officer sighed, before handing the note back to me. I took in a deep breath and took the note from him, before looking down at it again. There's no way Romain could say such words when I'd been nothing but kind to him. I even remembered the words he had said back when we had been talking over the phone. "You were worried about me? Well, that's something new. Queen Audrey never said those words to me, nor the other queens I worked for. But really, thanks for your care, Your Majesty. I really appreciate it." I then paused as a sudden thought came to me. Or maybe it had all been fake to me. Maybe it hadn't been Romain over the phone at all. I gulped and looked down at the note, reading every single bit of it.
"I can't anymore. The feeling is just too much. Why me? I always wonder. I'm always put into a difficult position. Queen Marinette has been nothing but kind to me, but I know a fake show when I see one. Are none of these people nice? Even the next queen had to be so cruel. I'm sick and tired of it and I see that this is the one way I can get out of this mess."
I couldn't believe the words I had just read, and due to my shock, I guess I wasn't able to hint the hidden message in it. There was no way Butler Romain would have written this about me. There was no way! I clutched unto the note I was holding while I looked up at the officers. "I'm keeping this for a while to look into it. Yes, now I understand why you believe I did it, but I promise you that I'll find a way to end this and a way for you to believe me. Well, you know where to find me if you want to ask any questions later on when I'm not too busy." I turned around and started leaving, thoughts clouding inside my head. I already had a few theories as to what was exactly going on, but what scared me the most was why and who was doing it. My theory was that someone out there was going around wanting to kill these people, and then leaving notes to make us all believe it was suicide.
I had no idea how the murderer managed to write the notes in their victims' exact handwriting, or somehow talk exactly like them. But then again, it made no sense to me as to how I could be able to hint these hidden messages in these notes. I mean, it was like I'd just take a look at them, and then in a few seconds of after looking through the note twice, the letters would just become bolder and bigger and create other words. I opened the limo and headed inside, before telling my driver to start and go back to the palace. I need to look into this more, investigate every single aspects of the situation. I had to find out what was really happening, who was behind this and the exact reason why they were doing this.
And I knew I couldn't do it alone!
-
I opened the door to my room, stepping inside. Alya had headed back to her place a few minutes ago, while I had immediately came back here, feeling like I had important jobs to do. This wasn't just me trying to become an excellent queen to everyone and rule this place fairly. No, instead it was me running back and forth, trying to save people's lives while confusing myself even more. How could I explain all this to some other people when I couldn't even make sense of it myself? Everything was just so confusing, but the thing that really triggered me was how my parents had been the first to die in this cold-blooded world. I wish I had known of this sooner, I wish there was a way I could just go back into time and save them. I wish there was a way I could have stopped all of this from happening.
When I walked inside my room, I closed the door and then just leaned against it, the death scene of my parents and Romain playing repeatedly in my mind. Suddenly my mind was brought back to when I had walked in on my parents speaking about this secret that they were so afraid to tell me. I had forgotten all about that because my main priority hadn't been to find out what the secret was anymore. Instead, it was about knowing who was the next victim and trying to keep them save from whoever was doing this.
I walked up to my desk and took a seat, and although knowing just how devastated I was, I tried to keep strong by taking multiple deep breaths and exhaling. I took the note out and placed it on my desk, before taking my hand and smoothing it because of how crumpled it was and how tiny the letters were. When I was done, I looked down at the note and read it again, each words making me shudder even more than the last. When I read through it, I did it once again, making sure I didn't skip a word. Finally, just like I had expected to happen, some of the letters started getting bolder and bigger than the rest. I took out another piece of paper and a pen, before I started writing each bolded letters down. I was quite shocked to see that the first word the first four letters made was the name 'alya' and I couldn't help feeling shocked and terrified.
"I can't anymore. The feeling is just too much. Why me? I always wonder. I'm always put into a difficult position. Queen Marinette has been nothing but kind to me, but I know a fake show when I see one. Are none of these people nice? Even the next queen had to be so cruel. I'm sick and tired of it and I see that this is the one way I can get out of this mess."
My heart started beating faster as the rest of the other words started making sense to me. No! No, it couldn't be. I felt my pen slip out of my hand and drop, but I didn't bother bending down and picking it up from the floor. Instead, my eyes were glued to the note, each letters that had formed into words burning inside of my mind. I clasped a hand against my mouth, feeling the tears threatening to fall. No! My eyes scanned the words again, reading each of them once again, but this time, more slowly.
"alyas parents are next."