p dir="ltr"strongAurora's /strongstrongPOV: /strong/p
p dir="ltr"My eyes were sore from rubbing them so much. I managed to stay up a full twenty four hours, which is something I've never done before. Movement on the couch caught my attention; my brother Henry was just starting to wake up. He groaned as he sat up and rubber his eyes and face with his hands. "Oh god. What the hell happened last night?" He moaned pitifully. I knew he had a hangover, which meant he was most likely feeling horrible./p
p dir="ltr""Your friend Francis managed to get you inebriated last night. From the amount of bottles that were on the floor I'm surprised neither of you got alcohol poisoning." I said in a soft tone, but loud enough so he could hear me. I poured him a fresh cup of hot coffee to sober him up, which he thanked me for. He asked me lots of questions even though he was visibly in pain./p
p dir="ltr""You kicked Francis out and told him never to come back?" He asked with slightly furrowed brows. "Yes. He isn't good for you Henry. I know you desperately want him to be your friend, but he isn't a nice person. He just uses you to get a free ride in school." I said, and to my surprise he agreed with me. Maybe it had to do with the hangover he was currently suffering from./p
p dir="ltr"Something could have happened yesterday though that made him realized what a pompous ass Francis really is. After making sure my brother was alright, I quickly washed up and put on a fresh pair of clothes. My body was protesting my every move but I needed to go to work. I didn't want it to seem like I was taking advantage of my employer's feelings for me./p
p dir="ltr"So I got a cab and headed to Laszlo's home to attend to my housekeeping duties. When I reached my destination I slowly managed to get inside of the house. To my surprise no one seemed to be home. But when I saw the note on the kitchen table, I realized that everyone was at 808 Broadway. Instead of getting another cab, I decided to walk. I figured the walk would do me some good./p
p dir="ltr"All the cups of coffee I had during the night were wearing off, and I had a whole day to get through. 'At least I don't feel as miserable as my brother.' I thought, which made me feel a bit better. When I reached 808 Broadway I took the stairs and found Sara making tea in the little kitchen that was near the back stairway. "My goodness, you look like death warmed up." Sara gasped at the sight of me./p
p dir="ltr""Thanks Sara. That does wonders for my self confidence." I joked, which caused a small smile to spread across her face. There was still serious concern in her eyes though. She offered me a strong cup of tea and I thanked her. "Do you need help?" I asked her as we walked into the other room. "No, I think I can manage." She replied. Honestly I think she was more worried that I'd drop something in my tired state./p
p dir="ltr"Stevie was in his usual windowsill while John smoked at his desk. The Isaacson brothers were standing near the chalkboard with Laszlo. "The doctor was going to call you to say you didn't have to come in today. But... as you can see... he kinda got carried away." Cyrus said in his deep baritone voice that always seemed to have a calming effect. "It's okay. I don't mind being here with all of you, even if I am tired." I replied with a small smile./p
p dir="ltr"John suddenly noticed me and put out his cigarette before walking over to where I was standing. "Hello, Aurora. It's nice to see you." He said with a charming smile on his face. I could tell he was tired, but I had a feeling he got more rest than I did last night. "You mean you're glad she's here so you have an excuse to take a break from your assigned work." Sara replied with a raised brow, which made me smile a little. It seemed to amuse Cyrus as well./p
p dir="ltr"John rolled his eyes as she caught the attention of the others. The Isaacson brothers said their hellos and so did Stevie once he joined our little group. "How is your brother? I hope he's doing well." Laszlo asked after everyone had a cup of tea in their hand. "He's alright, but I doubt he feels like it." I replied. I didn't wanna tell him that my brother had been blindly drunk last night./p
p dir="ltr"I didn't want him to get the wrong impression; Henry is a really responsible and respectable man when he isn't influenced by outside forces. Thankfully he won't be having to worry about Francis very much anymore. With any luck he'll leave my brother alone completely. At least that's what I've been hoping for anyway. br /Laszlo said he was glad my brother was doing alright, and that he wished he could have told me to stay home. It was probably obvious to everyone that I was tired from the way I looked. But I didn't mind being here with my friends. As John and the Isaacson brothers talked, Sara looked over the big chalkboard. Cyrus and Stevie was looking out of one of the large windows./p
p dir="ltr"A warm look filled Laszlo's beautiful eyes and I had to fight the urge to wrap my arms around him. No one knows that he and I are more that friends now. I wasn't ready for them to know just yet anyway, because neither of us were sure of our relationship would work out. Not only are we employer and employee, but the stress of this investigation might take toll on us./p
p dir="ltr"Deep down I didn't want what was happening around us to interfere with our budding relationship, but that was foolish. It was going to interfere with everyone's lives rather we likes it or not. I pressed thoughts to the back of my mind as they started debating over the facts of the case again. Sara asked if I could assist John with his assignment, and I said yes./p
p dir="ltr"John seemed to really the mundane bits of investigation work, but I didn't blame him. Doing paper work would be boring when you'd rather be out on the streets chasing down the killer. The day seemed to drag by and my tiredness only increased. Laszlo seemed to notice because he told everyone to stop for the day. I ended up checking in on my brother before going to the doctor's home./p
p dir="ltr"I wanted to make sure Henry was doing alright. Once I was sure he'd be alright on his own for the rest of the day, I found myself in Laszlo's bed. "No, you need rest. I won't have you cooking dinner in the state you're in; you could hurt yourself." He said after I insisted that I was okay. I knew he was right though. My eyelids felt heavy and I could barely function. "Fine." I replied with a sigh. br /He made sure I was cozy in his big bed with his soft covers and mountain of pillows. "Stay." I said in a voice that kinda sounded whiny. A beautiful smile spread across his handsome face as a warm look filled his big brown eyes. "Alright, but I'll only stay until you fall asleep. I still have some work that needs to be done." He replied sweetly./p
p dir="ltr"Laszlo gently climbed into bed beside of me, but he didn't join me underneath the covers. Once he was comfortable I snuggled closer to his warm body and breathed in his comforting scent. The way he gently caressed my cheek with his thumb, lulled me into a deep sleep. The next thing I knew I was being woken up by gentle rubs on my back. "Wake up, we have to get going." Laszlo's voice said./p
p dir="ltr""What's wrong?" I asked him curiously as I turned over on my side and rubbed my eyes. "There's been another one. Another murder. We have to get to the scene before the whole police force gets there, or we won't be able to collect any evidence." He said, and I felt as if all of my sleepiness had been drained our of me. Excitement filled my veins as a trickle of anxiety soured my stomach./p
p dir="ltr"I threw the covers off me and hurried into the bathroom to straighten up my messy hair. Then I was running down the stairs to meet the others in the clash. Stevie was sitting on top with Cyrus, and as soon as I closed the carriage door we took off with a jolt. I barely had enough time to even sit down before we were flying down the street at top speed./p
p dir="ltr"We tore around street corners haphazardly, but Laszlo seemed untethered by the dangerous speed we were traveling at. That gave the impression that he was use to this kind of thing. "Don't worry. Stevie has never overturned a carriage in his entire career of working for me, and I doubt that he'll start any time soon." Laszlo said, obviously reading my facial expression./p
p dir="ltr"During the carriage ride I snuggled into his side and closed my eyes as I breathed in his scent. Being with him seemed to calm my nerves a bit. All of a sudden we came to a skidding hault, and I assumed we had reached our destination. When we got out of the calash I saw that there was a few lights on in the house we were parked next to. "Thank god you're here. The Isaacson brothers are already inside looking around. You better get inside." John said, jogging up to us./p
p dir="ltr""Cyrus and Stevie, stay with Mr. Moore and keep an eye out for the police. If you see them let us know as soon as possible so we can get out of here." Laszlo said to the two of them "Certainly, doctor." Cyrus replied. Stevie just nodded once in response. I followed Laszlo inside and took notice that the place looked... normal, so normal that it felt eerie./p
p dir="ltr"Nothing seemed out of place, which meant there wasn't a forced entry. Sara met us in one of the hallways and lead us into a large dinning room. The scene that my eyes fell upon was so odd that it took me a few minutes to realize what I was seeing. Five people were sitting at the dinning room table. The only indications that showed they were all dead was the way they were seated./p
p dir="ltr"Each of them had their faces planted on the surface of the mahogany tabletop. Marcus and Lucius were conducting evidence samples. Laszlo was asking the brothers multiple questions, but I didn't hear a word they were saying. The whole scene was just so... strange. "Where's the kitchen?" I asked Sara once I regained some train of thought./p
p dir="ltr""Through here." She said before she lead me through a side door near the back of the room. The kitchen was hot and full of many different aromas, which told me that a meal had been recently cooked. There wasn't any light in this room, but the bright fill moon aided in that particular area. One wall was practically made of windows, and the whitish blue glow of the moon illuminated the entire kitchen./p
p dir="ltr"As I looked around I didn't notice anything interesting until I opened the icebox. Inside were two tell tale signs of what might have killed the poor unfortunate people in the room we had just been in. "Did you find anything?" Sara asked curiously. A loud whistle from outside filled my insides with panic. 'The police are coming.' I thought. "I'll tell you at 808 Broadway, let's get out of here before we all get arrested." I said as I quickly left the room./p
p dir="ltr"We met up with the others on the steps outside before we hurried to headquarters. Thankfully Stevie knew all the shortcuts and tricks to evade the cops, because we left the house with seconds to spare. Everyone was crammed inside of the calash, making things very uncomfortable. But when we reached 808 Broadway the Isaacson brothers told us everything they found, which wasn't much to go on./p
p dir="ltr""I think I know what killed them rather than who." I said once there was a window of opportunity for me to insert myself into the conversation. "What do you think killed them?" Laszlo asked. It was if everyone was holding their breath as they waited for what I had to say. "When I looked through the kitchen I found two fugu fish in the icebox. They're more commonly known as puffer fish." I replied./p
p dir="ltr""And?" Marcus asked. "Puffer fish are a Japanese delicacy, but they're very poisonous if cooked incorrectly." I said. It fit the theory of the victims being poisoned by the food they had eaten. It made sense, but it lead to a more complicated question. Did the chef who cooked the meals purposefully kill the victims or was it an accident?/p
p dir="ltr"strong+++++++++++++++/strongbr /strongA/N: Thanks for reading!/strong/p
p dir="ltr"My eyes were sore from rubbing them so much. I managed to stay up a full twenty four hours, which is something I've never done before. Movement on the couch caught my attention; my brother Henry was just starting to wake up. He groaned as he sat up and rubber his eyes and face with his hands. "Oh god. What the hell happened last night?" He moaned pitifully. I knew he had a hangover, which meant he was most likely feeling horrible./p
p dir="ltr""Your friend Francis managed to get you inebriated last night. From the amount of bottles that were on the floor I'm surprised neither of you got alcohol poisoning." I said in a soft tone, but loud enough so he could hear me. I poured him a fresh cup of hot coffee to sober him up, which he thanked me for. He asked me lots of questions even though he was visibly in pain./p
p dir="ltr""You kicked Francis out and told him never to come back?" He asked with slightly furrowed brows. "Yes. He isn't good for you Henry. I know you desperately want him to be your friend, but he isn't a nice person. He just uses you to get a free ride in school." I said, and to my surprise he agreed with me. Maybe it had to do with the hangover he was currently suffering from./p
p dir="ltr"Something could have happened yesterday though that made him realized what a pompous ass Francis really is. After making sure my brother was alright, I quickly washed up and put on a fresh pair of clothes. My body was protesting my every move but I needed to go to work. I didn't want it to seem like I was taking advantage of my employer's feelings for me./p
p dir="ltr"So I got a cab and headed to Laszlo's home to attend to my housekeeping duties. When I reached my destination I slowly managed to get inside of the house. To my surprise no one seemed to be home. But when I saw the note on the kitchen table, I realized that everyone was at 808 Broadway. Instead of getting another cab, I decided to walk. I figured the walk would do me some good./p
p dir="ltr"All the cups of coffee I had during the night were wearing off, and I had a whole day to get through. 'At least I don't feel as miserable as my brother.' I thought, which made me feel a bit better. When I reached 808 Broadway I took the stairs and found Sara making tea in the little kitchen that was near the back stairway. "My goodness, you look like death warmed up." Sara gasped at the sight of me./p
p dir="ltr""Thanks Sara. That does wonders for my self confidence." I joked, which caused a small smile to spread across her face. There was still serious concern in her eyes though. She offered me a strong cup of tea and I thanked her. "Do you need help?" I asked her as we walked into the other room. "No, I think I can manage." She replied. Honestly I think she was more worried that I'd drop something in my tired state./p
p dir="ltr"Stevie was in his usual windowsill while John smoked at his desk. The Isaacson brothers were standing near the chalkboard with Laszlo. "The doctor was going to call you to say you didn't have to come in today. But... as you can see... he kinda got carried away." Cyrus said in his deep baritone voice that always seemed to have a calming effect. "It's okay. I don't mind being here with all of you, even if I am tired." I replied with a small smile./p
p dir="ltr"John suddenly noticed me and put out his cigarette before walking over to where I was standing. "Hello, Aurora. It's nice to see you." He said with a charming smile on his face. I could tell he was tired, but I had a feeling he got more rest than I did last night. "You mean you're glad she's here so you have an excuse to take a break from your assigned work." Sara replied with a raised brow, which made me smile a little. It seemed to amuse Cyrus as well./p
p dir="ltr"John rolled his eyes as she caught the attention of the others. The Isaacson brothers said their hellos and so did Stevie once he joined our little group. "How is your brother? I hope he's doing well." Laszlo asked after everyone had a cup of tea in their hand. "He's alright, but I doubt he feels like it." I replied. I didn't wanna tell him that my brother had been blindly drunk last night./p
p dir="ltr"I didn't want him to get the wrong impression; Henry is a really responsible and respectable man when he isn't influenced by outside forces. Thankfully he won't be having to worry about Francis very much anymore. With any luck he'll leave my brother alone completely. At least that's what I've been hoping for anyway. br /Laszlo said he was glad my brother was doing alright, and that he wished he could have told me to stay home. It was probably obvious to everyone that I was tired from the way I looked. But I didn't mind being here with my friends. As John and the Isaacson brothers talked, Sara looked over the big chalkboard. Cyrus and Stevie was looking out of one of the large windows./p
p dir="ltr"A warm look filled Laszlo's beautiful eyes and I had to fight the urge to wrap my arms around him. No one knows that he and I are more that friends now. I wasn't ready for them to know just yet anyway, because neither of us were sure of our relationship would work out. Not only are we employer and employee, but the stress of this investigation might take toll on us./p
p dir="ltr"Deep down I didn't want what was happening around us to interfere with our budding relationship, but that was foolish. It was going to interfere with everyone's lives rather we likes it or not. I pressed thoughts to the back of my mind as they started debating over the facts of the case again. Sara asked if I could assist John with his assignment, and I said yes./p
p dir="ltr"John seemed to really the mundane bits of investigation work, but I didn't blame him. Doing paper work would be boring when you'd rather be out on the streets chasing down the killer. The day seemed to drag by and my tiredness only increased. Laszlo seemed to notice because he told everyone to stop for the day. I ended up checking in on my brother before going to the doctor's home./p
p dir="ltr"I wanted to make sure Henry was doing alright. Once I was sure he'd be alright on his own for the rest of the day, I found myself in Laszlo's bed. "No, you need rest. I won't have you cooking dinner in the state you're in; you could hurt yourself." He said after I insisted that I was okay. I knew he was right though. My eyelids felt heavy and I could barely function. "Fine." I replied with a sigh. br /He made sure I was cozy in his big bed with his soft covers and mountain of pillows. "Stay." I said in a voice that kinda sounded whiny. A beautiful smile spread across his handsome face as a warm look filled his big brown eyes. "Alright, but I'll only stay until you fall asleep. I still have some work that needs to be done." He replied sweetly./p
p dir="ltr"Laszlo gently climbed into bed beside of me, but he didn't join me underneath the covers. Once he was comfortable I snuggled closer to his warm body and breathed in his comforting scent. The way he gently caressed my cheek with his thumb, lulled me into a deep sleep. The next thing I knew I was being woken up by gentle rubs on my back. "Wake up, we have to get going." Laszlo's voice said./p
p dir="ltr""What's wrong?" I asked him curiously as I turned over on my side and rubbed my eyes. "There's been another one. Another murder. We have to get to the scene before the whole police force gets there, or we won't be able to collect any evidence." He said, and I felt as if all of my sleepiness had been drained our of me. Excitement filled my veins as a trickle of anxiety soured my stomach./p
p dir="ltr"I threw the covers off me and hurried into the bathroom to straighten up my messy hair. Then I was running down the stairs to meet the others in the clash. Stevie was sitting on top with Cyrus, and as soon as I closed the carriage door we took off with a jolt. I barely had enough time to even sit down before we were flying down the street at top speed./p
p dir="ltr"We tore around street corners haphazardly, but Laszlo seemed untethered by the dangerous speed we were traveling at. That gave the impression that he was use to this kind of thing. "Don't worry. Stevie has never overturned a carriage in his entire career of working for me, and I doubt that he'll start any time soon." Laszlo said, obviously reading my facial expression./p
p dir="ltr"During the carriage ride I snuggled into his side and closed my eyes as I breathed in his scent. Being with him seemed to calm my nerves a bit. All of a sudden we came to a skidding hault, and I assumed we had reached our destination. When we got out of the calash I saw that there was a few lights on in the house we were parked next to. "Thank god you're here. The Isaacson brothers are already inside looking around. You better get inside." John said, jogging up to us./p
p dir="ltr""Cyrus and Stevie, stay with Mr. Moore and keep an eye out for the police. If you see them let us know as soon as possible so we can get out of here." Laszlo said to the two of them "Certainly, doctor." Cyrus replied. Stevie just nodded once in response. I followed Laszlo inside and took notice that the place looked... normal, so normal that it felt eerie./p
p dir="ltr"Nothing seemed out of place, which meant there wasn't a forced entry. Sara met us in one of the hallways and lead us into a large dinning room. The scene that my eyes fell upon was so odd that it took me a few minutes to realize what I was seeing. Five people were sitting at the dinning room table. The only indications that showed they were all dead was the way they were seated./p
p dir="ltr"Each of them had their faces planted on the surface of the mahogany tabletop. Marcus and Lucius were conducting evidence samples. Laszlo was asking the brothers multiple questions, but I didn't hear a word they were saying. The whole scene was just so... strange. "Where's the kitchen?" I asked Sara once I regained some train of thought./p
p dir="ltr""Through here." She said before she lead me through a side door near the back of the room. The kitchen was hot and full of many different aromas, which told me that a meal had been recently cooked. There wasn't any light in this room, but the bright fill moon aided in that particular area. One wall was practically made of windows, and the whitish blue glow of the moon illuminated the entire kitchen./p
p dir="ltr"As I looked around I didn't notice anything interesting until I opened the icebox. Inside were two tell tale signs of what might have killed the poor unfortunate people in the room we had just been in. "Did you find anything?" Sara asked curiously. A loud whistle from outside filled my insides with panic. 'The police are coming.' I thought. "I'll tell you at 808 Broadway, let's get out of here before we all get arrested." I said as I quickly left the room./p
p dir="ltr"We met up with the others on the steps outside before we hurried to headquarters. Thankfully Stevie knew all the shortcuts and tricks to evade the cops, because we left the house with seconds to spare. Everyone was crammed inside of the calash, making things very uncomfortable. But when we reached 808 Broadway the Isaacson brothers told us everything they found, which wasn't much to go on./p
p dir="ltr""I think I know what killed them rather than who." I said once there was a window of opportunity for me to insert myself into the conversation. "What do you think killed them?" Laszlo asked. It was if everyone was holding their breath as they waited for what I had to say. "When I looked through the kitchen I found two fugu fish in the icebox. They're more commonly known as puffer fish." I replied./p
p dir="ltr""And?" Marcus asked. "Puffer fish are a Japanese delicacy, but they're very poisonous if cooked incorrectly." I said. It fit the theory of the victims being poisoned by the food they had eaten. It made sense, but it lead to a more complicated question. Did the chef who cooked the meals purposefully kill the victims or was it an accident?/p
p dir="ltr"strong+++++++++++++++/strongbr /strongA/N: Thanks for reading!/strong/p
