It had been a week since the mastermind behind the Jigsaw Puzzle Killings and the events at Forbodium Castle, Justin Lawson, had been arrested. Scotland Yard was in a bit of a slump. No work was coming in, and nobody seemed to speak. Even the Mystery Room was silent. The hallways were so deserted, you could easily imagine tumbleweeds rolling playfully across the linoleum. That is, until the two foreigners came.
"Hey, Elise! Hurry up!"
"Alanah…you know I'm anaemic AND horrible at physical activity…"
"Aw, don't gimme that! Come on, slowpoke!"
Alfendi Layton rose from his desk and walked past Lucy Baker, curled up on a couch reading the latest fashion magazine that cheapo Al took from the train station wastebasket. He opened the door, ready to scold the two young women, when he staggered back and fell.
"Prof! Hey-y! Get up!" Lucy took her waterbottle and poured the contents over Alfendi's face.
"L-Lucy! No-Nobody does that anymore!" Placid Prof became a little annoyed.
"But, Prof! You just fell outta nowhere! Let me see who toppled you over…" Lucy stood in the doorway, staring at the two women. One was slightly tanned and had long blonde hair. She was rather short compared to the other woman, who had medium-length brown hair, crème-caramel coloured skin and beautiful almond eyes. Lucy wondered if she had ever been in those shampoo commercials. The brown-haired woman walked up to Lucy and stared at Alfendi.
"Is everything alright?" Lucy stared at this mysterious woman.
"Yeah, I guess so…"
"How rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Elise Chua. I work as a prosecutor."
The tanned blonde girl sprinted forward and pushed Elise to the side. "My name's Alanah! I'm an athlete and part-time veterinarian!"
Lucy introduced herself. "I'm Detective Constable Lucy Baker of the Mystery Room. My boss here, Alfendi-"
Layton interrupted her. "It's been a while, Elise." Lucy was surprised to note that it was Potty Prof who was using this gentle tone with Elise.
"Yes…it has, hasn't it? Four years…"
Alanah walked up to Lucy. "So," she whispered. "Are you the girlfriend of that ponytailed anorexic guy?"
Lucy sniggered. "Me? Him? Puh-lease."
"Good. At least Elise will be pleased to hear that…" Alanah seemed to be staring at something in the distance. "You see, four years ago…"
Elise pushed Alanah to the side. "Let me explain. It's uh, better that way. Alanah and I came to London 6 days ago, when we heard the news about…Justin's arrest. Well, it was my idea, because…I had some…unfinished business here. Al and I...worked on a major case that went to court once. But the details of the case were never disclosed, otherwise the public would go nuts. I'm probably breaching at least 2 rules by telling you this."
Lucy sat on the couch in the Mystery Room. Alanah was drinking soda pop, Alfendi was staring at the floor and Elise was sitting, one leg over the other, with her hands folded. A true princess. Lucy turned her head towards Alfendi, and he sheepishly grinned back.
"...Is all this true?" Lucy asked Alfendi. Elise sprinted up in front of Lucy.
"Ha-ha, yes...perhaps I never got the opportunity to tell you about Elise," Alfendi murmured. "At least now you know." His red hair hung low beneath his eyes, as if he wanted to hide from the pairs of staring eyes. Nobody blamed him.
Then, all of a sudden, Alanah jumped up. "Hey, Alfendi. Elise is my bestie, ya know? So, I wanted to tell you something."
Everyone leaned forward. Alanah grinned evilly. "Alfendi Layton…Elise Chua loves you!"
Elise screamed and ran from the room. Lucy smiled and Alanah collapsed back into the sofa, obviously satisfied with what she had done. Alfendi stood up and chased after Elise.
"That's proof enough, innit?" Alanah whispered, to which Lucy cracked up.
A few minutes later, Alfendi returned into the room, gripping Elise's wrist. "She must've been easy to catch, that tortoise of a woman." Alanah grinned.
"You have an irreplaceable friend, Elise." Alfendi smiled at Alanah.
Lucy stood up and cleared her throat. "So…I still don't understand why you came to London."
Elise stood up and looked straight at Lucy with a piercing stare. Lucy shivered.
"Oh, there are many reasons." she said. "Ha-ha...perhaps it would be best if I explained everything."
Suddenly the atmosphere in the room changed. The colour drained from the walls, and everyone felt as if they were being enveloped in a swirling cascade of darkness. This Elise girl knows much, much more than she's letting on, Lucy thought. At last, Alfendi spoke.
"Heh heh heh...perhaps it would benefit everyone if I explained." Potty Prof had appeared at a bad time.
"That case Elise and I worked on was a huge one. It was kept secret so that the world wouldn't be like, 'EEEEEK!' so..."
Elise stuck her nose in the air. "Yeah. But by then, he'd changed. So whenever there was a photo with blood, he would originally be like 'EEEEEK!'."
Layton turned to Lucy. "By constantly exposing me to disturbing pictures like that, she was able to somewhat revert myself back to normal. Only for a little while, but...that's the reason why I have these Jekyll-and-Hyde moments."
Alfendi walked around Elise and hugged her from behind, which made her face turn red. Alanah giggled, while Lucy felt just a little sad inside. Al rested his chin on her shoulder and began to speak. "I think, maybe it was you who kept me going. It was you who saved the last little bit of my old self. I thank you for this."
Lucy stood up. She couldn't bear it anymore, after reading pages and pages of Lucyfendi fanfictions. "You two make me sick!" she yelled and promptly ran out of the room. Alanah got up to chase Lucy, but Elise stopped her.
"I think it may be better if I repent for...er...whatever sins I committed." Elise walked out of the Mystery Room, calling Lucy's name. Alfendi stayed behind to talk to Alanah.
"Alanah," he began, "if it weren't for Elise, I wouldn't have been where I am now." Alanah cocked her head, so Alfendi explained in further depth.
Author's Note: You may want to get a box of tissues, a stress ball, popcorn and a comfy chair for this next bit. Wait, on second thought...
Alfendi walked over to the window and spoke. "Ten years ago I met Elise at Melbourne University. I was this weird English kid that everyone stared and pointed at. Everyone except Elise Chua. She saved me from months of bullying. I liked her very much, and I wanted to go back to England with her so we could get married. But, she was an Australian, so after graduating she lived in Canberra. However, I left her and went back to London. Then, five years ago, she reappeared in front of me as a prosecutor prodigy. We immediately recognised each other. But I was different then. I had become 'Placid Prof' already. She showed no interest in going out with 'Placid Prof' so I called on Aunt Em. She-"
The tanned blonde girl made a 'crazed fangirl' face and fell back into the couch. "Oh! Oh! I know this! I played Professor Layton and the Last Specter until I met Arianna, because she was so cool and I-"
"Your point is...?"
"Well! Well! Well! My FAVOURITE character in the E-N-T-I-R-E game is Emmy Altava! That's who Aunt Em is, right!? She's the Professor's cousin, because I went on the wiki and ignored the spoiler warnings! It spoiled the entire game, but I-"
Alfendi did one of them 'facepalm' thingamajigs. This Alanah girl was rather...peppy.
"And! And! Please! I played the first two cases of Mystery Room! But, but, I got bored 'cos there was way too much dialogue! Elise likes that, but I was a bit of a slow student! Even now I hate books! I'm more the athlete! Elise was the geek, see. She'd get all this acne and it was so awful and-"
Elise slammed the door open. "What are you saying about me and acne?!"
Alanah gasped, but appeared to take no notice. "I was a sucker at maths. Like, REALLY bad at it. When Elise had to go home sick 'cos of her anaemia, I volunteered to go with her. She knew I was skippin' out on 30 minutes of maths, but I didn't care. At least not until she dug her super-sharp fingernails into my skin. They drew blood! I-"
Elise walked over to Alanah and slammed a fist on her head. "The readers of this obvious fanfiction won't appreciate you blabbing non-stop about Arianna, spoilers, books, maths and fingernails! This is meant to be somewhat of a controversial revelation!"
"Wot, a revelation? Like Aurelia's? When she told us her real name was Lorelei? Man, THAT was a shocker! Lorelei sounds funny!"
Alfendi sighed. It was impossible to get anywhere with this girl. He walked over to Elise and swooshed his hair coolly. "Elise, is Lucy alright?"
Elise looked out the door. "Again, I am horrible at physical activity. I...uh...got too tired before I could catch her."
Alanah skipped up to Elise and pinched her cheek. "Elise! Your cheeks are so squishy! Like, squoosh squoosh! They're cute! Like, super-duper-wooper cute! But, but, you have to admit...your cheeks are squishy 'cos you're kinda chubby..."
Alanah was on the receiving end of a dynamic-head-punch. Wham. On the head.
"Alanah, why don't you go back to the hotel...?"
"Uh, uh, nope! Hey, 'Fend! Did I ever tell you about the vending machine incident? Like, with Elise and stuff?"
Elise opened her mouth in protest, but Alfendi raised a finger to her lips. "Do go on. I am rather intrigued by this."
"Oh, please!" Elise objected.
Alanah grinned. "So, so, Elise lost her house keys when she was twelve years old. She kept them in her school bag and because I ripped a hole in one of the compartments, the keys fell out!"
Ripped it...? Alfendi thought. This young lady was rather...boisterous, to put it nicely...
"Elise kept the keys in her purse, 'cos she wouldn't lose it then. She kept her purse in her blazer pocket. Anyways, Elise went up to a vending machine and opened her purse to insert a coin. But, but, but, she put in her house keys instead! Isn't that funny?!"
Alfendi stared at Elise who was staring at Alanah, who looked like she had something more to say. "Speaking of keys, do you know the video game Animal Crossing? I have it on my Wii! See, I love this game. But I got this really annoying villager, Peewee, and one day he said that he lost his house keys. I went fishing and fished up his house keys! But, but, I didn't give them to him. I mailed the keys to this dog named Cookie! Ha-ha!"
Elise turned to Alfendi. "I'm surprised she hasn't done this in real life already," she said.
Alanah whirled around and whacked Elise's arm, making her squeal and punch Alanah in the stomach.
"Ooooooof!" Alanah moaned.
Alfendi stared at Elise. "Are you sure you should have done that?" he asked.
"Sure I'm sure! She deserved it, the cheeky little monkey!" Elise laughed.
Alanah staggered up and dashed out the door. "Because I'm the athlete, I'LL go after Lucy! She couldn't have gone TOO far, considering I accidentally locked all the entrances of Scotland Yard with a new code!"
"...What?" Elise and Alfendi yelped in unison.
"Yeah, sorry about that. We're all kinda trapped here. Sorreee!"
Elise was too shocked to punch Alanah. "You...you...Alanah, what have you done!?"
"Err- I didn't mean to! Like, when you see a button, you gotta press it, yeah? I did that."
"Alanah..." Elise's fringe hung just below her eyes. "Doesn't the description of this fanfiction read 'all across London'? How are we supposed to go all across London if we can't even leave Scotland Yard?!"
Alfendi walked up next to Elise. "We don't even have any food here. You know how important food is to Elise."
Elise turned red while Alanah chuckled. "So? Just jump out the window or something."
The small blonde girl ran off, and her footsteps echoed all across Scotland Yard. It was pretty noisy and annoying.
"So..." Elise murmured.
"That friend of yours..." Alfendi began.
"Ha! Yeah! She's a real pal, hm?"
It was silent in the Mystery Room for a while, then Alanah came dashing back.
"Ack...! Elise! Fend! It's...it's terrible! You gotta come right now! Now! NOW!"
She ran off while Alfendi winced at his nickname. They ran out and tried to keep up with Alanah.
They came to the front entrance, where Lucy was lying, unconscious. There was a strange mark on her right cheek which would have looked like a burn mark were it not white and glowing. Alanah took Lucy's hand.
"...Poor dear. I hope nothing bad happened."
"You're one to talk, Alanah! After you locked the doors, nobody can get out! The phones in here can only call to other officers in this station, and the main phone is password-protected! And YOU reset the password!"
Alanah's face went red, and soon enough she was crying. She buried her face in her hands and just sat there sobbing.
"Oh, I'm not done yet," Elise snarled. "Remember when-"
Her voice was cut off by Alfendi, though he did not say anything. His hand was raised, and Elise's head was turned to the side. Her right cheek was red.
Alfendi shook her by the shoulders. "Enough, Elise! You're too harsh! She's sorry! Can't you see?"
Elise walked over to Alanah and knelt down. "I...I'm so sorry, Alanah. It's just...really hard for me now. And Lucy..." She turned towards the younger girl. "She may be in danger."
The dark haired girl stood up and looked at Alfendi. "Yes...I was brutal, wasn't I...? Maybe it's best if I left." Tears rolled down her cheeks as she began to run away from the group. Alanah followed.
"Wait! Elise! Elise! ELISE! ELIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE! Wait up! WAAAAAAAAAIT UUUUUUUUUUP!"
Alfendi started to run after Alanah as well. That look on Elise's face...it was different. It was a lot like...her expression ten years ago.