Quatre has been taken back to the 'Resort', leaving Hilde alone. She paces around her, desperately trying to figure a way out of this mess.
"I can't do this alone!" Hilde runs her hands through her hair. Her whole body shakes as she realizes there is no other way but to walk alone on this, unless she can convince Duo to help. Hell, she needs to find Duo first!
"Hey girl. Sorry about Quatre." Hilde spins around to see Amy at her door.
"Amy." She breathes her name, making the other woman nerves. "You…Have to help me get Quatre out of there!"
"What? Why? Didn't you see what happened? The kid needs help."
"Yes…But not from there! He needs to be out here. How could I get him out?" A confused expression shows on Amy's face. "You know everyone! Who could I go to, to get him out?"
"Dr. Po I guess. You haven't really made her mad so she may help. Like when pigs fly!"
"Amy." Hilde says, annoyance dripping from her words.
"No one is going to help you. They are not going to let him out cause you ask! Even if you say 'with sugar on top'!" Hilde crosses her arms over her chest in defiance. She will find a way. Even if it means breaking in and kidnapping him!
"Hilde? Ed is waiting." Says Sarah as she passes by. Hilde moves to her printer and takes the 'Murder Mystery' with her.
"See ya." She says to Amy as she heads out to greet Ed. Amy sighs and decides to get a bite to eat. However, her plans change when she catches a glimpse of someone.
Hilde has been sitting in the café, same as yesterday, for sometime thinking of how to go about this. She feels bad about leaving Quatre but if she can find Duo and tell him then she can worry about Quatre. This way at least they have someone on the outside. But first, how in the hell is she going to find Duo?
"Why hello handsome. Come here often?" Duo freezes when he hears the woman speak. 'Damn my luck.' He curses himself for being caught. Man, will Hilde have a field day with this when she finds out. "Name's Amy? What's yours?" She says sweetly.
"Duo Maxwell." Growls Sarah. Duo pails when he sees his 'girlfriend'. Murder flashes in her eyes as she stares at Duo. Amy steps to the side, away from the crossfire. "I should have known! Jerk, how could you!" Duo looks around for an escape route. "Oh. Don't even think about leaving!"
"Get over it." Exclaims Amy.
"What? He used me!"
"Yeah? Well that's our lot in life when it comes to relationships with men. Like, look at my first husband…" Duo sees his chance and slips out of the room; leaving Sarah stuck to hear about Amy's ex-husbands. He quietly walks down the hall as to not draw attention to himself. Duo passes by a room where two nurses gossip as they make a bed.
"Kitchen duty for a week?" Gasps one nurse.
"Yup. Hilde promised to do it if she got another free day today."
"Wow. I guess that's good. Means she wants to finally be out of here."
'Hilde' out?'
"Dammit Duo! Where are you?" Hilde returns to the café after her unsuccessful search for the braided man. She takes a moment to rest as she sits down in a booth. Hilde looks around the café, taking in the surroundings. In the booth in front of her is a woman with thick curly black hair. She yells into her cell phone about how crappy her laptop is and how the tech support (the ones on the other line) are nothing more that a bunch of morons. Across the room is a red haired man typing away on his laptop. His fingers move skillfully across the keyboard. In the next booth is a couple enjoying a cup of coffee. The woman laughs at a joke, almost spilling her coffee. Hilde sighs. These people don't realize that somewhere in their quiet town, an innocent woman is being tortured. She turns her gaze to the line of people waiting to order. Her eyes follow down the line, all the way to the last person; a man with green eyes and brown hair that covers half his face.
"Baby!" She gasps.
"Hello babe."
"DUO!?" She exclaims, getting the attention of everyone. He just grins at her, laughing at her with his eyes.
"How…h-how…where have you been?" She yells at him. Duo putsh is hands up in the air.
"Calm down Hilde babe. You…you where looking for me?" His voice becomes serious. Hilde nods. She takes in a deep breath and readies herself to spill the whole story to him when she sees someone else, a man sitting in a corner booth sipping coffee. He has blond hair and blues eyes. His hair and nails look like they haven't been cut in a year. He's everything 'Author' said he would be. It's AP. But one thing 'Author' failed to detail is the pain in his eyes. The poor man is dead inside.
"Hello? Hilde?"
"So your name is Hilde?" Hilde brakes out of her trance and looks up to see 'Baby' standing by her booth. "I'm Trowa Barton."
Ed walks down the main street in search of Hilde. She is five minutes late, again.
"Where is she? I swear! If she ran away…Shoot! I hope she hasn't. Her parents will kill me!" Then, out of the blue, Hilde comes running down the street with a man close behind her. "HEY!" he yells to get her attention but fails too. Just as he is about to follow her another man pushes him to the side. "Hey!" Yells Ed but the man is gone. "Forget this!"
"Hilde…My knee! I can't…"
"Come on Duo!" She doesn't know why she ran. I guess it's what she does best when she feels trapped.
"Hey! I want to talk to you!" Talk? Hilde slows down a bit. Maybe he doesn't want to…WHAM! All the air rushes out of her body as she is tackled to the hard sidewalk. Trowa flips her on her back and starts to choke her. Blood can be seen in his eyes. Anger, hatred and pain mix on his handsome face. "Why?" He screams, tears threatening to fall. "WHY!!??"
"I…not…me!" She gasps.
"Hey! Back OFF!" Duo whacks Trowa off Hilde with his cane. Trowa recovers and rushes Duo. However, Duo is ready and fends him off with his cane. Soon Duo has Trowa pinned against a wall with his cane and body. "I said." He growls. "Back off." Both men glare at each other as Hilde catches her breath.
"Stop Duo! Let him go." She gets up but Duo doesn't listen.
"Give me back my sister!"
"Why do you think I took her?" Duo becomes confused. Who is this guy? And what does Hilde have to do with a missing sister?
"Because…You had her necklace!"
"I found it."
"Yeah? Then how did you know she's missing?" Duo thinks it's a good question and waits with Trowa for her answer. Hilde reaches into her jacket and pulls out the 'Murder Mystery'. She really didn't want to do this. Hilde didn't want him to find out that the sick-o who has his sister is posting everything he has done to her on the web. Unfortunately it has to be done.
"It's all here." She whispers. Duo slowly moves away. Both men look at the papers in her hands. "I'm sorry." She says as he takes the papers, bewildered.
"What is going on Hilde?" Whispers Duo as Trowa reads the 'Murder Mystery'.
"Duo." She sighs. "A friend of mine found this 'Murder Mystery' online. We both have been reading it and yesterday we found out that this 'Murder Mystery' is real! Trowa is a character in this story! His sister really is a victim. I was looking for you so you could help." Trowa slowly slides down the wall, tears fall freely now. He hides his face with the papers. Hilde moves to comfort him. "We don't know where, but he is somewhere in our town, this killer."
"And he has my sister." Hilde hugs Trowa. Duo joins them on the floor. Hilde's words lower him down with their weight.
"Geez." Is the only thing he can say.
"I can't go to the police. They will think I'm insane, seeing how I live in Newberry. And my friend…You do smell like pine!" Both men look at her like she really is insane.
"What?" Trowa says.
"'Author', the guy who writes this, mentioned that you smell like pine!" Hilde takes the papers in search of that line.
"Guess it must be the detergent." Trowa says. Duo just shrugs.
"I don't smell guys." He simply states.
"Here! When Quatre, that's my friend, and I found the necklace. See." She point to the part for them to see. "He talks about us and then moves onto you after we live."
(He stands there. Holding his sister's necklace in his fist. Did she do it? He wonders. Why else did she have it on her? Oh no Baby. It is Killer, the one watching you. And they watch with delight as confusion and then anger cross over your handsome face.
Killer can't help it, they have to touch him. Slowly they get off their bench and make their way to him. Baby is too preoccupied to know that the captor of his sister stands only a few feet away.
It's risky but Killer is willing to do it.
"Are you alright?" Killer asks. Stepping closer. He smells of fresh pine.)
"I…"
"Trowa. Do you remember who that was?" Trowa stands up. So does Hilde and Duo, both eyes on Trowa.
"That woman."
"Woman?" Hilde and Duo say.
"She had a big nose and black curly hair." Suddenly Hilde remembers her as well.
("Hey?" Both look up to see a woman with black thick curly hair that runs untamed down to her midsection. She smiles at them and offers to help. "You ok? You had a nasty fall!""Oh thank you." Says Quatre. Hilde smiles a thank you. She puts the necklace in her pocket.
"No problem young man." The woman turns around and returns to the bench she was sitting at.)
"She was at the café as well." Hilde says.
"What?" All three look around to see if she is near. If she had heard any of this then they are screwed. "There." Trowa says in a low voice. Down the sidewalk the woman casually walks down the sidewalk. Hilde looks at the woman in wonder. Here is the horrible killer, window-shopping! Luckily for them she is far away so she couldn't have heard them.
"We have to go to the police." Duo says quickly.
"No. They will only mess things up. We need her to lead us to where my sister is."
"Right. But first I need to get Quatre."
"Why?"
"He needs to be a part of this. The only reason he started reading this." She holds up the papers. "Is to find closer to his own pain. I think he lost his family to a killer."
"Hilde…"
"Come on Duo! Look. You have a cell phone?" Duo says no but Trowa pulls his out. "OK. Duo you go follow her. And Trowa. Find AP. Tell him and get him to help us." They both nod in agreement. "I'll find you some how!" She turns and runs down the street.
"By the way. I'm Duo Maxwell."
"Trowa Barton."
"Good. Now lets go!"
Clare Griffin, 'Author', looks at a pretty dress in a window. She wonders how she would look in it.
"Another day." She says. Clare turns to look toward Trowa, her 'baby', but finds him gone. She looks around but he is nowhere to be seen. Neither is the other two that he was chasing. The girl, called Hilde if she remembers, called Trowa 'Baby'. She comes to a stop. Does she know? Has she been reading the story online? She must have! How else could she have found… 'No. I'm safe.'
Dr. Po takes out her car keys as she heads for lunch. She is about to unlock her car when she sees someone in the reflection of her car's window.
"Hello Dr. Po." Sally drops her keys in shock. "I think it's time we talk."
"Hello Hilde."