Mona Lisa
Maria tactfully put the murder weapon aside. She smiled a small smile to herself. For a moment, she was laced with pure disgust. However, that feeling quickly went away because she knew that to get away with this crime, she couldn't let her emotions get the better of her. Maria had been bound to her secret but had never been forced to kill for the protection of it. He had figured out her secret and so she dealt with him. The acts she committed weren't necessarily legal or appreciated by the general community or public. The men of the town over might be appreciative of Maria's services but it was not exactly something they'd be proud to go bragging to their friends. Maria had done an exceptional job up to this point of keeping her secret. If only Jessie hadn't figured it out. It was unfortunate that she couldn't keep her boyfriend around and at this moment, she shed a single tear for him. Her line of work had taught her not to become too attached to anyone and Maria knew that she had broken her only rule on the day that she first met Jessie.
~ Two days later
Maria sat in the police detective's office as she recalled the succession of events to the police chief. Two days ago, she had arrived at her boyfriend's house to find him dead with a fatal stab wound to his chest. "I just don't know who would do this," Maria said with a sob. The police chief looked at her and asked her if she was positive. "Yes," Maria nodded, lying with the perfection of a trained actress. "We'll notify you if we make any headway into our investigation, Maria," the police chief said. Maria smiled and thanked the police chief. And then just for a moment, the police chief saw something in her smile. He couldn't quite describe the tell – tale sensation he got, but what he saw in her smile reminded him of the Mona Lisa painting.
~ Two days later
Maria had the entire Lakewater Tower town in the palm of her hand and she knew it. Everyone figured she was a nice enough girl but didn't bother to pry as did her boyfriend, Jessie. But then again, Jessie wasn't from Lakewater Tower. Jessie had come a couple of years ago from a small and quaint neighborhood in Toronto after the death of his parents. He was from the kind of town where everyone knew everything about every neighbor and ultimately this was probably Jessie's downfall, Maria thought as she played the role of grieving girlfriend at Jessie's funeral. Maria was holding the funeral at her manor and practically the entire town turned out for the event to pay their respects and to console the seemingly grieving girlfriend. "Hello Mr. Daniels, Mrs. Knicks, Mr. Hanks, Mr. Coligny," and so on and so on the greetings went. At one point Maria nearly yawned after she received her hundredth condolence. "I wish this would all end," she said out loud but to no one in particular. Of course, everyone thought that she just wished that Jessie wasn't dead. No, Maria knew Jessie was dead; she had him lain in plain sight in the front of the living room with an open casket. Jessie was definitely dead and he wasn't coming back. For a moment, Maria felt herself just maddening at the sight of him. She thought to herself, "Why did he have to be so idiotic? I didn't choose this lifestyle, it chose me – he shouldn't have pried so much." Maria could sense her façade dropping and she quickly painted her face back on. Her clients had always noticed she was good at this sort of thing. After all, she couldn't be brooding at her job. Though, she did have her moments.
The season was winter so Maria got up to close the living room windows. All afternoon she had been feeling a bit of a draft in the room. The strange thing was that though all the windows were closed, Maria still felt a slight chill. Maria almost attributed the sensation to being almost preternatural until she realized how silly this notion was. Maria was allowed to be more closed off than she usually was. Her neighbors just attributed it to her sadness. Maria heard snippets of words from her guest's conversations, for she had always possessed very keen ears. From Ms. Katherine, Maria heard, "These coral curtains…," in which Maria guessed that Ms. Katherine was admiring the very stylish curtains that she had set up in the windows of the foyer. Maria also overheard Ms. Sandy speak of, "… cat food." It was only commonplace for her to worry about her cats back home and whether or not she'd remembered to feed them. Ms. Sandy was the town's resident cat lady but she'd deny it a thousand times over. She was also beginning to become a bit senile. Maria nearly laughed out loud as she listened to the pointless chatter of her guests. "It is just like people to come to a funeral and admire my curtains or wonder if they'd remembered to feed their cats," Maria nearly spat, then laughed. If this was the case, Maria figured that maybe she wasn't so stone – hearted after all. Maria then felt the chill move away from her rapidly. Isolated, Maria finally began to cry – truthfully letting herself sob for the first time since she had murdered Jessie four days prior.
Dalia wandered over to the dead man's casket. She was a precocious little five year old that had a hard time playing with the other kids. She was smart and noticed a lot of things that ordinary people wouldn't realize – namely, the transparent man walking around the living room clearly yelling at the guests. Dalia thought it odd that she was the only person that could see him and Jessie practically jumped when he caught Dalia staring. "So, you can see me?" Jessie asked in a purely innocent way as he bent down so as to get eye level to little Dalia. The little girl simply nodded for she was not much of a talker.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Dalia," she replied, looking into his warm green eyes.
"I need you to do something for me."
Jessie slipped something weighty into Dalia's hand and asked her to reach into the pocket of the jacket he was wearing in the casket. Dalia found the piece of paper in his pocket that said, 'Maria did it." The bloody knife Jessie had given to Dalia was enough for the police chief to convict Maria of manslaughter. With that, the transparent man disappeared and Dalia never spoke to him again. The slight chill also went missing from the room, Maria noticed. She had an odd feeling; as if something greater had triumphed over her. She didn't feel bad for herself, she felt bad that Jessie ever had the dishonor of making her acquaintance. Maria had cried for the death of Jessie before, but this time it came from the heart; from a place you would know that she was no longer hiding a huge secret. And the whole town saw it in her bland face – a face that was the exact opposite of the Mona Lisa. And right now, Maria loved Jessie with every fiber of being in her body.