"Goodnight." said Sycamore as Emmy closed the door to his room. It wasn't until she had left that he felt he could breathe a sigh of relief. Thank goodness that conversation was over.
But it also brought worry. Emmy said that she was going to speak to Luke - perhaps she would be able to talk some sense into him. No, not sense - the boy had too much of that. Maybe she could convince the young boy that he was wrong, even though he knew he was right.
Desmond put on his red glasses and stared out of the window, but it wasn't the hilly landscape that he was looking at. The rain on the window fragmented the man's reflection of himself, and it was then he noticed that the white mask was still lying behind him on the floor - luckily out of sight from Emmy and Aurora were standing earlier.
He picked it up, holding the white mask up to his face. Normally when he put the mask on he would feel energised and strong, determined and unbeatable, but right now he felt torn. The night had already told him: the hope was gone - he couldn't be any different from Descole - not even if he tried.
Meanwhile, Emmy peered around Luke's door. She sighed when she saw that Luke was still awake.
The boy was sitting on the edge of his bed and appeared to be deep in thought.
"Luke..." she began, "Don't you think that you should be getting to sleep? It is almost 5am, after all." He had calmed down since she had seen him earlier - which was a good sign.
Luke nodded a little unwillingly and got himself back into his bed and watched as Emmy began to leave the small room. Just before she left, she stopped; hand half-covering the light switch ready to turn it off. "By the way, Sycamore isn't a bad person, Luke." Emmy said, looking Luke in the eyes. "I'm sure professor Layton wouldn't be impressed if he heard about what you had done to him."
Luke looked down a little guiltily, he hadn't expected 'Sycamore' to tell Emmy about what he had done - mainly because Luke had huge amounts of evidence to prove that he wasn't who he was claiming to be. The boy shook his head with force. "Emmy do you not believe me?" he shouted, "I have proof you know! But I guess he missed out that part." Luke crossed his arms and looked at Emmy.
"What is your proof?" she asked calmly, walking closer and kneeling down on the rug that lay next to Luke's bed. She was only expecting the boy to come out with the comment about their shoes that Sycamore had mentioned - and maybe one about thier voices too (Emmy had picked up on the similarities in the way the two men spoke) - she did not expext him to say anything near as incriminating as what he did.
"He has Descole's mask."
Desmond sat on the floor, his head gripped by his hands. The goal that he had been working for his whole life to achieve was finally in sight; and now some child meant that he risked losing it all.
It was times like this when the man would resort to his Descole persona to turn his despair into anger and revenge. This time, however, he was in no position to be able to do so without the truth coming out and ruining everything. Everything had to be held inside.
To begin with, he only intended to operate as Sycamore to fool Layton into trusting him, but with each day that he spent as Sycamore, the more he missed the happiness and calm that came along with it. Helping the people that they met along the way made him feel good about himself in a way that he hadn't felt in years.
Except being calm and rational wouldn't get him the satisfying revenge that he needed. He couldn't stop now just for the sake of other people. Descole clenched his fist tightly. He needed hatred to fuel his anger, because Targent were going to pay for what they did to him and his family - without question.
Descole gave a low growl. Tearing his glasses off his face, he hurled them across the room. His breathing became erratic. He was not Desmond Sycamore, and after everything that had happened he never could be - the man should have died with the rest of his family years ago.
He watched as the glasses flew, knocking over the off-balance mirror on top of the chest of drawers. The glasses fell underneath and while they only got cracked, the mirror was completely shattered.
Sycamore's eyes widened and his breathing gradually slowed as his sudden outburst of anger faded. He noticed that the rain had been reduced to just a spot. The man covered his hand over his forehead, his normally tidy hair falling slightly out of place. He leaned forward onto the bed, slipping his hand down to cover his eyes as he began to sob quietly.
Emmy looked at Luke with concern. "His mask?" she whispered in disbelief, not wanting to speak loudly unless he heard. "How did you find it, Luke?"
"I heard him talking but when I looked in nobody was in there. So I went in." He began, meeting Emmy's hushed tone. "When he noticed me he dropped something - the mask. I ran over to help pick it up for him but then he went really strange. And then I realised that he was Descole."
"And then you attacked him?" she confirmed.
"...yes." Luke said bowing his head, feeling a little ashamed for doing something so ungentlemanly. "He obviously isn't the famous Professor Sycamore so I was trying to get the disguise off - except before I could even attempt to he pushed me."
"He did what?" She said, trying her hardest not to raise her voice in annoyance. "Right, I'm going to tell the professor about this tomorrow." Emmy knew that telling Layton would hopefully put a stop to Descole's plans to try and beat Targent to unlocking the Azran legacy. Uncle Leon had told her about how the man wanted to destroy Targent single-handedly, but by figuring out his disguise this early they could get him out of the way for good.
"Tomorrow? Why not now?" Luke asked, trying to hide a yawn. The thought of having to sleep with Descole around, he had to admit, was a little frightening considering what the man had done in the past. While "Sycamore" hadn't shown any bad intentions, Luke knew that it was only a matter of time before he did something. "It is not like I am going to be able to sleep, Emmy. Not now I know that he is Descole."
The woman sighed, then had a look around the room to see if she could find something to take the boy's mind off things. She came back with a record to play on the gramophone in the room.
Upon hearing the music, Luke seemed to relax almost instantly and with Layton being a deep sleeper and nobody in the room nextdoor, there was no need to worry about it being too loud.
"Thank you, Emmy." Luke said sleepily.
"No problem."
The pair didn't hear the smashing of glass in the room further down the corridor.
"Don't you listen to him, Aurora! He is a traitor!"
The words repeated themselves over and over in her head. Professor Sycamore seemed like such a nice man - he cared for her like a father and not once had shown any signs of being the "traitor" Luke described him as - yet why was she more inclined to believe Luke over him?
Aurora curled up on her bed as she went through what happened: Luke attacking the professor, the professor shoving Luke back. Everything after that seemed like a blur. Why did humans have to feel anger? All the emotion did was tear things apart. Knowing that she would never sleep with this on her mind, Aurora decided to see if Luke was okay. She had a feeling that the boy was also unable to sleep after what had happened.
She slipped out of bed, once again, and put on her slippers. As she did so, she heard a smashing of glass coming from the room right in front of hers - professor Sycamore's room. Startled, Aurora rushed out of her room.
In the corridor, she saw Raymond, who had also rushed out upon hearing the noise. The two glanced at each other then, without conversing, pushed open the door to the room.
"Master? Master, what has happened?"
Sorry for all of the switching between characters. I felt like it was needed to cover how everyone felt about the situation. Hope that you are all enjoying :)
