Young Writers Society

"She had a hideout a short distance from here," Jason said. "We were there earlier. I can bring you there, and Darian can go to her family's home. I-I thought coming here might help us solve the mystery, but I think we need to retrace our steps and figure out what happened to Megara last..."

Runi gave a nod in agreement.

Les nodded, "Yeah, yeah, okay."

He was going to see where she lived. How she lived. His sister. He couldn't help but be excited about that, despite everything. It was the closest he could get to getting to know her. Who she was, what she liked to do. He's always thought she'd be an artist, like mother. One of her children had to have gotten that part of her.

They went their separate ways.

Jason brought Les back to the hideout. He was trying to think of when he could tell Les the truth about Runi and him, but he wasn't sure how he could ever convince him when they weren't able to turn back to normal. He didn't even know if appearance changing potions were something Megara's world had.

So he kept pretending that his name was Ben as they walked, and when they stepped into the hideout, he was so caught up in trying to seem like he wasn't hiding something that he didn't realize there had been so minor changes in the time since Runi and him had left.

If he had been paying more attention, he might have realized they weren't alone anymore.


Following Jason's instructions, Runi manage to get to where Megara's family lived. Jason hadn't instructed her on how to sneak in, so she did it herself. She scouted out the building, found the best way in, and strode right through the door. Her family was out, thankfully - Runi wouldn't have to worry about interacting with them.

Now she just had to figure out where to go first.

As she was walking down one of the hallways, deep in thought, she suddenly felt like she had walked into something. She blinked, took a step back, and realized that the something was actually a maid.

Runi faltered, gaping like a fish out of water for a quick second. But then she remembered that she looked like her best friend, and that her best friend was the current ruler of Hell. Cornyx Blackthorne definitely had some charm, and she had to hope that Darian Blackthorne could have it, too.

"Hello," Runi said, her voice vaguely sexy, deep and everything she thought would charm a random maid. She knew she wasn't supposed to go off of fiction, but hey. It was a foolproof plan most of the time, right? "I'm sorry for bumping into you - I should have watched where I was going."

"She lives out in the woods?" Les tried not to sound like he was judging his sister, though he was, a little. Did she really live like an animal in the woods? The idea that she was anything like their mother was fading quickly. Maybe she at least had a cottage or something, some sign that she was at least a little civilized. He didn't like the idea that he was related to some wild girl who lived in the woods and went into the city to commit crimes before returning to play with dragon cubs or something. It was unthinkable.



The maid, a young redheaded girl, blushed and looked up at him through her eyelashes, "It's alright," she assured shyly, "I should have been looking out for guests. Is there anything I can do for you, sir?" She was looking him up and down, her blush deepening with every passing second.

Jason nodded.

"I think she did it because it was safer here," he explained. "Both for her and Eddie. I...I never really had a chance to ask why she lived here. She just lived here as long as I knew her."

He scanned the room for anything that seemed odd, but nothing immediately jumped out at him. He hadn't been here nearly long enough to figure out what was normal for it and what wasn't.


The maid was blushing. Runi took that as a good sign - it looked like Cornyx's charm was paying off!

"There is, actually," she said, flashing her a smile Cornyx would have never given. She apologized, in the back of her mind, for taking advantage of his appearance, but he hopefully would never find out about this. "I had something happened to Megara - I'm friends with this family, but I've been out of the loop for far too long. What happened to her?"

Les looked around. It wasn't like the found the woods disgusting or anything, it was just no place to live. To raise a child. That was what towns were for, so everyone could help support each other rather than being loners in the woods, dying early and letting the children die because they don't have access to anything they need when they need it.

"I don't get how the woods could be safer. Even if she couldn't live in the city, why wouldn't she just move to another town?"

xXx

The servant girl gave him a shy smile that seemed to have little to do with his question, "Oh the poor girl," she said sympathetically, "She was just a bit younger than me when she died. It was such a tragedy, having her taken from us like that."

Jason gave a small shake of his head.

"I don't know," he admitted. "There were a lot of things I didn't know about them..."

He took a deep breath, trying to fight back against the tears threatening to form and fall down his cheeks. "It...It was safer here. That's all I know. Eddie...Eddie had a habit of sneaking out. That's how I met him. Maybe that was how he...he got killed. Megara always told him not to, but he was a little kid, and kids...kids don't like listening to directions."


Runi was trying her best not to cry, but it was hard talking about Megara and pretending like she didn't know her all that well. She hadn't, really, but they had more than she was pretending to have right now.

After a second passed, Runi reached out a hand and gave the maid a comforting pat on the shoulder. "It must have been," she said before returning her hand to her side. "I admit I haven't heard how she died."

Les but his lip. That was horrible. There wasn't anything sadder than having to dig a grave for a child. Nothing at all.

"Are...are we almost there? To where she lived?" he asked, trying to focus the conversation on something else. He couldn't think about Meg and Eddie as dead. Not if he was going to get through this without crying.

xXx

The maid shook her head in a pitying sort of way, oh, what a shame.

"We all expected her to die of that illness of hers but-" she choked and sniffed, "-it was one of us that made the mistake. It was an accident, we don't know who did it, honest, but her meds got all switched up. She died in the night."

Jason came to a stop.

He looked back at Les.

His voice was quiet and careful when he spoke - he was beginning to realize that Les was having a harder time adjusting than he had originally believed. He wasn't sure where to begin, but he had to try make Les see what kind of person Megara had been. He was sure Les had ideas of what Megara was like, and that Megara wasn't living up to those expectations. But that wasn't bad. Megara had been his friend, and he was only friends with people who were good at heart.

"This is where she lived," he said. "I...I know this is hard for you, but Eddie and her lived here. I'm sure they visited other places, but..."

He faltered.

"It's not as bad as you think," he said. "It looks empty and cold right now, but it felt like another home when they were both here."


Her medications had been tampered with.

The maid couldn't see the subtext, but Runi easily could. Jason had told her all about Megara's family back when they were heading to the festival. She had a sister who specialized in poisons. Megara knew a thing or two about them, too, according to Jason, but it was her sister Briar that was the real genius when it came to poisoning people.

But something wasn't adding up.

Megara didn't even live in the manor. Maybe the servants were supposed to think she did, but Runi knew that just wasn't the case. And Megara hadn't been sick, either - right? The maid was making it sound like the illness was bad, and illnesses like that didn't happen overnight. The only problem Megara had had been her limp.

She needed to talk to Jason again.

"I'm sorry," she softly said. "That's a horrible way to go. I...I wish I could have been here when she passed away."

She gave the maid a small smile.

"Thank you for the help," she added. "I'll let you go on your way now - I don't want to hold you up any more."

She ducked her head, gave a small, elegant wave in goodbye, and turned to head back down the hallway the way she had come.

Les stood quietly for a moment, taking it all in. This was how she lived. The daughter of one of the wealthiest people in the city lived here, in the forest. A little hole-in-the-wall cave dug into a mossy cliff. The walls were polished, smooth. Had Megara done that? And there were things all around. It was an absolute mess. That he could believe from a sister of his.

CRASH!

He jumped, looking wildly about for the source of the noise deeper in the cave. "What was that!"



As the maid scurried away, a woman stepped out of a corridor. She wore a white dress, clearly for the festival, with white gems and jewels sewn into the transparent fabric that the neckline faded into at the top that cut across her body to wrap around her shoulders. The illusion created was that the jewels were part of her skin, and that they faded into the elegant, lace-covered dress that the girl wore.

Her fiery red hair was down and cast around her shoulders in a waterfall of waves that caught the light with shades of orange and yellow. Blue eyes like diamonds shone with cold, sarcastic anger as she looked him up and down. "You're not supposed to be here."

Jason froze.

His hands immediately went for the guns he hidden underneath his jacket. What that noise sounded like was another person, but Runi couldn't have possibly beat them there. The closest person Megara had to a friend outside of him had been Ciel; Jason doubted she would have come here.

If someone was here, they had to have something to do with Megara and Eddie's deaths.

He put his finger to his lips, gesturing for Les to stay behind him. He would have just gotten him to hide, but Jason didn't know how many people were lurking in the base besides them. If he wanted to make sure Les didn't get hurt, they'd have to stay together.

Then he started walking towards the source of the sound.


Runi's breath caught in her throat.

Her voice did, too. She was speechless at the sight of the woman before her. She was beautiful, and assertive, but it was her face that made Runi unable to speak. It felt like she was looking at Megara again. Their faces weren't exactly the same, but it was still eerily similar. Runi stammered out a few incoherent syllables, eyes wide and skin pale.

"I'm sorry," she managed to get out, trying to bite back the tears threatening to form in the corners of her eyes. "I'm-I'm so sorry. I should have known, but I..."

She faltered.

She wasn't sure who she was apologizing to.

There was a subtle scuffling sound from one of the rooms - the one that had been Eddie's - and then silence.

Les felt his heart leap into his throat. There was someone here. There was someone here. For a single, minuscule fraction of a second, he hoped it might be Megara. Then it was over and he realized the truth. Megara had been a criminal. The only people who would come to her house after her death would be those trying to find her or something she had.

Curiosity pushed him forward even as he wanted to back away. The added idea that it might be dangerous only served to make him more curious, somehow.

xXx

The woman crossed her arms, "But you what?" She examined him with a scrutinizing gaze like he was a thing beneath a magnifying glass she was studying. Her eyes linger here and there, some detail catching her attention then losing it as she moved on. When it was clear she'd reaped all she wanted to know from his appearance, her eyes returned to his face.

To look him in the eye, she had to look up. He was nearly if not over a full foot taller than she was, but still, she managed to appear to be looking down on him.

The noise had come from Eddie's room.

Biting back his slowly rising anger and fear, Jason approached the room. He lingered by the doorway, waiting and listening, before stepping in with his gun ready to fire.


Runi shook her head.

"It's nothing," she hurriedly said. She tried to figure out what she was supposed to say next, but she grew even more flustered every time she looked down at the woman's face. She kept seeing Megara, judging her for her silence and for failing to be there when she needed her most.

She looked away.

"You...You just remind me of someone I knew," Runi said, staring at a spot on the wall across from her like it was the most interesting thing in the entire world.

Les looked over the man's shoulder into the room to see a teenager, maybe seventeen or eighteen, sitting on the floor in the corner with a dagger held in both hands. As soon as the boy saw them, he pointed the blade at them, his eyes wild and wide, his breathing visibly erratic.

xXx

The woman raised an eyebrow, "You were asking about the late Miss Ringly, why?"

Jason kept his expression cool and neutral. He didn't like the panicked look on the teenager's face - it implied that he'd stab one of them with the blade if things didn't go how he wanted. He took a step in front of Les to protect him better and held his gun steady.

"Who are you?" he asked. His voice was almost devoid of emotion. Maybe it was because he didn't trust himself to speak with it; if he allowed himself to get emotional, he wouldn't be able to stop the knot of anger forming in his stomach.


She forced herself to look back at the woman.

"I was her...friend," Runi said. There was a moment of hesitation as she spoke; friend wasn't the right word to describe what they had. It never would be. And maybe she should have been sticking with her story of being a family friend and not Megara's specifically, but this woman wasn't dressed like a maid.

Maybe she was looking at Megara's sister. Jason had said they didn't look much alike, but it could have been the hair that had thrown him off. She tried to shake the thought out of her head. If she was Megara's sister, Runi had to be careful. She couldn't risk getting into a fight with her.

Still, she had to try again.

The maid might not have known a lot about Megara. But from the way this woman was looking at her, she did.

"Do you know how she died?" Runi asked. Her voice was cold and emotionless. It scared her to hear that tone coming out of her lips. It made her sound like Cornyx when they had reunited in his throne room for the first time since Grimmore. It made her sound dangerous and like she didn't care for the life of the woman standing in front of her. And that wasn't the case at all, but Runi knew that if she let any emotion into her voice, she'd break and start sobbing.

"I heard there was a mix-up with her medication," Runi said. "But that doesn't make much sense - she wasn't sick, and she didn't live here anymore when she died."