Life, Her Hell that Holds Love

Word Count: 1432

A/N: Hello there! In this chapter, there's nothing lemon-ish, but there is a scene which is kind of horny, jerk-ish and ... funny? I guess... Also, you'll find that there's not only emotional sex in my head!

By the way, 'Now' is a song performed by Paramore. Not recommended if you hate rock music, but surely if you love rock music, you'll love Now, and songs by Paramore.

Characters: Kudo Shinichi, Haibara Ai, Mouri Ran (?), Vermouth (ta-da!), Akai Shuichi

Chapter 4: Now

"Ran," Shinichi calls for her once more. The girl takes no other move but just stands and sobs. The uneasy feeling in me is so strong that I cannot overcome it, causing me to shiver.

Shinichi seems too busy to notice my fear; he searches for something to cover up himself. Lucky it is that my towel was dropped not far from the bed last night. He grabs it and wraps it around his lower body before opens the blanket.

"No..." I whisper in fear, grasping his arm which reaches out to touch my cheek. I know something really awful is about to happen, be it on me or Shinichi, or both of us.

"Don't worry," he beams as he touches my cheek with the other hand, obviously misunderstands the reason I'm afraid, "I'd be right back." He then loosens my grip, and makes his way to the crying girl.

Damn! I wish I have the gut to tell him what is happening, but with my body shaking I can't even make the slightest move.

"Ran," he stands in front of her, comforting, "I know it's hard for you to accept the fact. I don't ask for forgiveness but please, accept my sincere apology. I never mean to hurt you and fool around with your feelings, but..." before he can complete his sentence, unexpectedly, the girl hugs around his half-naked body.

The detective appears to finally having his sharp instincts and rational mind back, with his eyes wide open he mumbles, "You... you are not..." It's too late because she is already clasping his neck, making him suffocates as she takes out a pistol from beneath her shirt.

"That's right, cool guy," the cold voice escapes from 'Ran's' lips. She, faces me, is ready to pull the trigger at me at any time. The instant when she pulls the trigger, Shinichi, though still suffocating, knocks her hand that is pointing the pistol to me.

The bullet hits the pillow that is right at my side. I gasp. I watch Shinichi struggling against her, slowly having the upper hand as he is stronger than her physically. I know I must do something before she outsmarts him.

I have to overcome my fear in order not to burden Shinichi any longer.

There's a time and place to die, and this ain't it, this ain't it... This ain't it, when I know we are meant to be...

Just then, her pistol slips from her hand and drops to the floor. I take the chance, immediately dart to where it lies and pick it up. She happens to be able to break free from Shinichi. With no other option left, I shoot but she successfully dodges it.

At the meantime, the door is banged open. Akai is dashing into the room just as the counterfeit is about to attack me. Using the gun in his hand, he shoots, and injures her shoulder. Blood oozes out from her wound; the pain causes her to frown.

"Vermouth, it's been a while," Akai, with a sarcastic grin on his face, casually says as he points the gun at her.

"Silver bullet," Vermouth hisses, her facial expression changes from shocked to slightly hysteric. With an I-should-had-expected-it sneer, she tears the porcelain mask from her face, revealing her true identity that I had known all along.

"Sherry, I'll be back," the face of hers that I fear for my life turns to me and speaks, intimidatingly. A chill comes from the bottom of my spine as her words reach my ears.

"You are not going anywhere but jail, Rotten Apple," Akai says as he approaches her slowly with his gun.

"Do you know, Silver Bullet," Vermouth smirks, "you and I share a similarity that is our forte most of the time, but a feeble sometimes." She takes a few silent, quick steps backward, like a cat, causing Akai and Shinichi to be alarmed and approach to her faster.

She reaches the corner of the room, with both Akai and Shinichi within steps to take her down. She laughs a little, "We prefer to act alone." With the best speed she manages to reach, she reaches the window and breaks out of it.

Before she breaks free, Shinichi grasps her arm but she struggles out of him. Just as she hops out of the window, Akai points his gun to her and makes a few shoots. I take a look from the other window to see her lands on the bushes. Her movements seem restrained because of her injuries.

I sigh out of relief, but just then doubts rushes into my mind, which is now able to do reasoning calmly. Why Akai is here, shortly after Vermouth appears? Why Shinichi is isn't aware that the 'Ran' is a palmed off by Vermouth, since Ran would certainly acts differently? Why aren't the two going after Vermouth, as they certainly are able to take her down?

I glare sceptically to the two, and find both of them eyeing and smiling to each other meaningfully.

"You should have told me earlier, Akai-san," Shinichi smirks as he watches Vermouth gets into her Porsche which is parked quite far away from his mansion.

"My apology, Kudo-kun. If I warned you, you probably wouldn't let Haibara-kun to be in danger, and the entire plan would be a failure, am I right?" Akai Shuichi grins, which annoys me very much.

"Hold on, I'm acting as BAIT?! Bastard!" I half-shout at Akai. How dare he plan everything all alone, making me bait without even letting me know?

Much to my surprise, he blushes, and embarrasses me as he says, "Haibara-kun, I don't mind to admire your body a little while more, but I'm afraid Kudo-kun would mind."

"Oi!" Shinichi exclaims; his face flushes red hot. I feel my cheeks burns as well... Holy shit!

I dash out of the room, screaming, "Akai-san! You better explain everything when I'm done dressing!"

"I brought your clothes over! Just right behind the door!" his voice reaches my eardrums, making me even more embarrassed. I didn't even know I can be experiencing and enduring such kind of humiliation...

oOoOoOoOo

"All right, so if you were here all the time, why don't you just break in when you saw her?" I question, with an eyebrow raised. Hopefully his answer won't give me another blow in my mind.

"To be honest, I thought it was Mouri-kun. I've been around every day and Mouri-kun appears at your house every day. Today I happen to try spying from Professor Agasa's house, and I saw 'Ran' going into your house," he pauses, to give a know-it-all smile, "I had no intention to stop her, not until I see another Mouri-kun coming from the end of the street."

"So how did you find out she's the real Ran?" Shinichi asks, sounding more interested than offended.

"I dialled her number; using the voice changer, I feigned your voice, telling her that you're out to solve a case so she needed not to come. I rushed into your house when she walked off," Akai explained.

I don't know if I am to feel relieved or not, to think that Ran nearly ends up seeing everything. I stare at Akai for not stopping 'Ran' at the first place, he happens to stare back at me.

"Surely you want it to be over as quick as possible, don't you?" he asks nonchalantly. I sigh. "By the way, Kudo-kun, nice job you did," he changed the topic suddenly, talking about something I don't understand.

"I'm sure if you had the chance you'd do it yourself, Akai-san," Shinichi smiles back and answer politely. I had to recall what exactly they were talking about...

Right then, as Vermouth was stepping back, Shinichi slipped away to the side table and took something from the drawer. And when Vermouth was about to getaway, he grasped her arm. Surely if he were intended to do so, he would successfully prevent her from escaping, but he didn't...

And a small device was stuck on her shirt!

"Now we'd had a chance to know where that person is," Akai sneers as he takes out the tracking glasses.

I look at Shinichi's direction, hoping that I'll find myself in his eyes. Instead, I find him looking at his phone and making a cal. My heart sinks a little; I feel my teeth biting my lips.

"Ran, yea, it's me... No, no... It's done. The case is solved... Yea... I'll come over to your place this afternoon."

Of course, who else would it be?


P.S. If you like code decoding game, go check out 'Game of Code' by... ME!

Review please!


Dear guesses, thanks for your reviews! I'm replying here. Oh yeah! Special thanks to Hai-Edogawa for your support all the time!

Momo, is my update speed good enough for you? Thanks for reviewing!

Guest1, I'm working harder than I thought I would. Thank you~

Someone else, seeing your reviews brings some sort of happiness to me. My bit of advice, never try to predict VivGlam's story ending. (Do I sound a little cocky? Sorry for that, I don't mean to.) But I'd say readers can interpret the ending whichever way they like. About my destiny, ha, thanks for concern, but I actually was joking in a way to say, it almost feel like my destiny to write heart-breaking stories. No worry for that :) (Though my own destiny is kind of unusual and maybe sorrowful, but I'm staying positive!) And, I sincerely appreciate you for sinking your soul in my story; I can feel it in your reviews. Thank you for your review and I do believe that Ai-chan deserves a happy ending, like I do.

Sherry Fan, thank you for liking my lemon! To be honest, I'm 17 so maybe it's still an illegal age to write lemon (who knows?).