Chapter 5

In which a man kills over the life of his love.

The train station was still open at four in the morning, thanks to arrivals at around that time, but the sleepy attendant told him that a train to Austria wouldn't be leaving until later that morning. He was welcome to wait, though, and so he did, but not before taking up about a half an hour to go home and grab something very important.

He slept fitfully on a cold bench on a platform, either platform nine or platform ten. Finally, at about nine, the train the attendant had told him about arrived, and he boarded. He realized belatedly that he had no luggage, not thinking to get any when he returned home, but he didn't care as much about that as he did that he was about to save his best friend's life.

There were several delays, however, and the train did not arrive when it should have. Snow on the tracks pushed back the arrival time to almost exactly ten o'clock. This did not deter Francis, and he managed to catch a train to Altstadt just in time.

That train arrived at around midnight, and Francis hopped off of it and ran to Elisabeta and Roderich's home, ignoring the time and the fact that Elisabeta would almost certainly be sleeping. He was dressed warmly, thanks to his meeting earlier with Mei Wang, so the cold did not bother him, and he quickly arrived at Edelstein Manor.

The manor was dark, and it seemed to Francis that not a soul was awake. He tried ringing the doorbell three times, but no one answered. He finally decided to break in. The sooner he got in there, the better.

All the windows, of course, would be bolted shut. It was the middle of winter and the house was cold enough as it was without windows opening all the time. But maybe a back door?

Yes! He cheered silently when he found the servants' entrance unlocked. He'd have to talk to Elisabeta and Roderich about that. After all, with that entrance unlocked, anyone could sneak in.

He sneaked through the kitchen, the dining room, and finally he made it to the grand hallway. It was completely dark, and he stumbled a few times before finally reaching the stairs.

When he made it to the top, he had to remember where Elisabeta and Roderich's room was. But there was no time for thinking like that! He'd never even been there! So he started at the end of the hall, throwing doors open and looking inside for people sleeping. He found several guest rooms, a drawing room, a few bathrooms, and a number of sitting rooms, but no master bedroom! Why was it so hard to find?

Finally, the only door left was the one on the far end of the hallway from where he'd started. Of course it was. He threw the door open.

There! Two shapes under the blankets on the humongous bed. He'd found them.

Francis had been awake for a very long time by this point, but he was still running on adrenaline. So it's kind of understandable that the first thing he did when he saw Elisabeta and Roderich was yell, "Elisabeta! Roderich! Wake up! Your lives are in danger!"

Elisabeta, not liking being woken up in such a fashion, threw a pillow at him. Francis made an exasperated noise. "Come on!" He ran up to the bed, and started looking around the table next to it. "You have to wake up and help me!"

"Wha…Francis?" Elisabeta mumbled as she opened her eyes and saw the Frenchman going through her things. "Francis!"

Francis looked back at Elisabeta. He put his hands on her shoulders as she slowly started to sit up. "Elisabeta. I have something very important to ask you."

"Yeah, and I have something to ask you—are you drunk? Or just crazy?" She whispered ferociously.

"Neither! Listen, there is something that you have that I need so that you won't get killed!"

"Get kill—Francis, what the hell?" She threw her arms into the air. "Just what the hell?"

"I don't have time to explain!" Roderich was waking up now, too. He sat up in his bed and looked over at where his wife was being accosted by her best friend.

"What is the meaning of this?" he shouted.

"Do you have an orange hairpin?" Francis yelled. "Do you or do you not? I need an answer!"

Elisabeta looked confused. "Of course I do. I wear it ever day. It has pink flowers on the end."

"Where is it? I need—"

He was interrupted by a large crash. The three in the room looked toward the window.

Someone had broken it, and that someone was standing in a pile of glass just next to it, while the winter winds blew in around them. "Hello, Elisabeta, Francis, Elisabeta's husband."

"Bella!" Francis exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Wait, Bella?" Elisabeta was wide-awake now. "You don't mean…?"

"I'm here to collect my fifth pin from Elisabeta's husband and then kill my former best friend. Nothing too big."

"No." Francis pulled something out of the folds of his coat and pointed it at her. "I've stopped you once, and I can stop you again."

Bella just laughed. "Where did you get that gun, anyway? It looks ancient. And I doubt you could hit me if I were a wall."

"For your information, I was top in my class in marksmanship at the police academy," Francis replied coolly. "And you're not even five meters away."

"That's a good point," Bella mused, "but would you really shoot me?"

"Why shouldn't I?" Francis took aim.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because I know who the Rose is?"

"The Rose? Who is the Rose? What's going on, Francis?" Elisabeta asked shakily. "Why is Bella here?"

"To kill you. Weren't you listening, you tramp?" the Belgian girl snapped. Elisabeta shivered. Nearly being stabbed to death repeatedly by the same person standing only a few feet away from you can make a person nervous.

"Basically there are five orange pins and five black ones, and if I get the orange ones before she gets the black ones your life is safe! But I have them all, so you can't kill her!" cried Francis, opening his palm to show all five orange pins glinting in the moonlight.

"That's not what I was told. The Rose just said, 'Get your five black pins and your kill is secure. But if Francis gets his orange pins first, it could be a little more difficult." Bella grinned. "I think she just told us what we wanted to hear."

"No…" Francis' blood ran cold. So no matter what, all he was doing was effectively useless?

"I'll make you a deal, Francis," Bella said suddenly. "Drop your gun, and I'll tell you who the Rose is."

"Why would you tell me that?" Francis growled. He took aim again.

Bella put her hands up. "No tricks! I'll tell you her name, just stop trying to shoot me. It's a good deal, at least, that's what I think."

Know the name? Telling him that the Rose was female was already a clue, but a name… so much could be done with a name. He had to know.

Francis lowered his weapon. "This is as good as you are going to get, Miss Peeters. Tell me the name."

"Jeanne Romée."

Francis didn't move for a moment. Jeanne…Romée. He tried to process this.

No. It wasn't true. It couldn't be true. There had been the fire, the whole place was burned to a crisp, they still hadn't started reconstruction…

That could only mean one thing. Bella Peeters was a liar. A LIAR! And how dare she lie about something like that?

"Grateful?" she asked coyly.

Francis aimed the pistol. "Not in the slightest."

He fired.

Bella looked genuinely surprised. Her mouth formed a perfect "o" shape as the bullet went straight between her breasts, and red blossomed out around the hole.

She fell to the ground in silence.

AN: So now the question remains…who is this Jeanne Romée?

It may be obvious to some of you, and you're probably going to guess and guess it right, but I still feel like there's an air of mystery! It'll be revealed next chapter (well, epilogue) anyway.

Who wants to know about what will happen in the next story? Me! Because I have no idea whatsoever. Your guess is as good as mine.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! :D