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We were ushered into the small, cramped office. The brunette said she would have to leave for tonight, and she would appreciate it if Duvall would lock up afterward. She then left us after turning off the display hall lights.

We sat there, three vampires, ill at ease, instinctively sizing up each other. When I turned to Josef, however, I noticed he was not ill at ease at all; in fact, he seemed to enjoy this – this fidgety, pincushion sensation that was rapidly spreading in my ass area. Did I mention that I was probably a closet sado-masochistic? I love driving myself up the wall of a blind arachnid and watch myself disentangle my way out of its web.

It could have ended in a fight over dominancy – with me winning, of course, and that darned boy's neck tight within my grasp. But Josef's voice languidly sailed through this and asked with the air of a bored aristocrat:

"Well, boys, are we going to say something?"

And everyone was talking all at once.

"I am not going to surrender myself like a lamb to the slaughter –"

"I have been looking for you, boy, so I appreciate if you should thank me –"

"Thank you? THANK YOU!? And don't call me young man, you rotting carcass –"

"Have you taken a look in the mirror lately? You're also a rotting carcass –"

"Not from where I sit – you stink like hell –"

"You, boy, do not know hell until I have these hands around your neck –"

By this point, in retrospect, I really believe that Josef enjoyed watching others' misery. When you've lived that long, the only emotion that got him high was probably negativity. He merely stood there, arms around his chest, his head tilting here and there like watching a very long run of tennis. Only when I rose from my seat and was about to scratch my name on Duvall's face, did Josef make a semblance of stopping us. "All right, girls, pipe down."

We both turned to him. "Stay out of this," Aaron began.

"Yeah, you stay out of this." I ran an angry hand through my hair. "This is all your fault! Dammit if it isn't, Josef, you could've told me about this and save the running around!" Somehow, that outburst dissipated my anger completely. Maybe I was too tired by now to even scream at him. I turned to Aaron who seemed to wait for his turn to speak his mind. But the youngster simply made a very convincing imitation of a goldfish out of air.

I turned my attention to Aaron. "You know I will not do anything to hurt you. Unless you fight back."

"Why would I?" he asked. "You got me when I'm the most vulnerable."

"What do you mean you're vulnerable?"

He spread his arms. "Look around you." His voice was a mixture of hurt and pride.

I did and said one thing that came to me. "Cakes?"

"Exactly. These are my creations. They're nothing less than my creations, my legacy to the world... my children." He stared longingly through the wide office window that made me feel like watching a movie in a theatre. The cakes stood out there silently, like guardians in snowy white and multicoloured shades. When the lighting was off, they really looked like people, standing stock still.

"I created everything that you see out there. I began very small, a one-tiered cake with simple icing decorations. Then I moved on to gum paste. My very first design caught Irene's eyes. It was inspired by something I saw one chilly spring evening in Lake Balboa."

Josef spoke after a long silence. "Cherry blossoms. That cake became an instant hit with celebrities. They wanted to know who the designers were, but they were unable to meet him face to face."

My memory whirred to life. "I remember that. The Secret Master who made fanciful cake designs only when it suited his fancy, so they say. It became the only cake boutique to be opened in L.A. and has stood the test of time since." I shook my head. "You're the Secret Master. There is little wonder why Irene allowed all these. You keep her shop alive all these years."

Aaron turned to face me. "Hey, don't say things like that! Irene allowed me to work here because nobody else would! She understood – she knows what I am. This arrangement is perfect – I work better when it's quiet and nobody is around, and in daytime Irene will show customers around to look at the cakes."

I nodded. "I meant what I said now in the best intentions."

"Best intentions are what ended me up here," Aaron said in a low tone, almost begrudgingly.

"Yes, about that bit," I nodded again, with a sidelong glance directed at Josef. "Let's start at that. Tell me how your best laid plans landed you here."

Aaron's eyes widened. "You know?" he asked. His face would have flushed red if he were human. His eyes were wide and full of questions.

"Well, I have my ideas, and your plan was near-perfect. But give me your side of the story first," I cajoled him.

This time, Aaron turned his chair around and faced me – us, really, with a distant look on his face. His eyes, though, were fixed sharply in the present, on me, actually. I could very well imagine how girls – Cynthia, in particular – fall for him head over heels. His hair used to be free, but now it was neatly bound behind his head with a small length of leather – maybe rawhide. Those blue eyes were still piercing and deep. He easily towered over my head by a few inches, yet his size was never a deterrent – one could feel rather secure around him. His long large fingers restlessly drummed the armrest before slowed down to a halt. He then cupped his mouth.

"Where do I begin? There was so many things I never thought could become the cause, but when I reflect upon them one by one, they could have been the causes."

"I suggest you begin with the letter," Josef said. "You received the acceptance letter. Then you 'committed suicide'. Mick here was nearly out of his head puzzling this around."

I stared at Josef in disbelief. He was in this thing all along. The only vampire around that I trust with my well-being lied to me like breathing.

"Ingenious, huh?" Aaron actually smiled at me. "That wasn't my idea, really. I thought that was too dramatic. When I was awakened later, they had to tube-feed me because I was so weak. I recovered only a week afterward, enough for the news of my death to disappear from the news and the minds of everyone involved."

"Cynthia thought you had been imprisoned, you know?" I saw one eyebrow rose suddenly. "She came to me asking to look for you. Did you go out within the last one week or so?"

Aaron nodded. "She did, huh." That faraway look again crossed his face for a brief moment. Then he shook it off. "Yes. I went out for a walk in the late evening. I got a new inspiration from that walk –"

I was not going to listen to a description of cake decorating, so I quickly stopped him. "Pray stay in our current topic. So you did go out?" Aaron nodded with an apologetic look in his face. "Okay, that might have been where she saw you."

"And now she's going around looking for you. Isn't that sweet?" Josef's tone was however dripping with sarcasm. Romance was not a word found inside his dictionary.

Aaron and I, however, ignored him blissfully. "So now, do you want to go to her and talk? Or would you rather me tell her that you're dead?" I asked him.

He did not give me an answer right away. There was anger behind his eyes when he heard my question. I knew the anger was not for me because when he spoke a few moments later, his voice was calm and the anger was gone – or hidden. "She said that? That she was looking for me? That she wanted to see me again?"

I nodded. "Cynthia wants to forgive you."

Again that faraway look appeared. Slowly, though, it was replaced with disbelief that quickly gave way to what I would call disguised hilarity – he gave out a barking laugh, the same way a nutcracker would if it was not oiled for centuries. "Hah! Forgive me!" He gave a starting jump, throwing back the chair he was in. "FORGIVE ME! I Do Not Seek Forgiveness From That Self-centred Brat of Demon Spawn!" He paced about quickly, back and forth, back and forth, a caged animal with wild and angry eyes.

"I can't believe this," he said after slowing down. "Even now she still seeks a way to trap me."

Josef and I stared blankly at him, then each other, then back again. "Wait," I mumbled slowly. "Wait a minute. You said something about a trap?"

"Yes, I did. Naturally you'd like to know What the Trap was."

I nodded.

"Let me guess, Mr St. John, the story she gives to you. She found me in the arms of another girl. I left her for that girl, who in turn was the girlfriend of another guy. I got in a fight, landed the guy in ICU while I landed myself in jail, effectively cutting myself from the final year exams. Then she goes on about how she moves on and yet somehow, that nagging feeling affects her so." Aaron turned to me with an inquiring look. "Am I right?"

I made a face, threw in a hand gesture for a good measure. "Yeah, that was about right. You heard this before?"

Aaron gave out a small angry growl. "Of course I've heard of it before: She and I concocted the LIE together."

It seemed like Josef was taken by surprise. I, on the other hand, was quite prepared for something like this. "This LIE, it had to do something with the guy who was hospitalised back then, hadn't it?"

Both Josef and Aaron now stared at me in awe and suspicion. Aaron started first: "What else do you know?"

"Yeah, Mick, who is the one making someone running around in a maze now?" Josef asked, his face pasted with a tight smile. That meant he did not like where this was going – somewhere he did not know.

"That's what detectives do, Josef. We detect and we deduct." Smiling widely at Josef, I then turned to Aaron. "Seems clear to me now, although I have to say, your girlfriend Cynthia is one smooth talker."

"How do you think she got out of school with flying colours?"

"I don't want to know," I replied, while a hundred methods of getting out of school without really trying swarmed my brain, and each more debauched than the other. Then I decided to ask Aaron the question that might fry even Josef's brains:

"How did Cynthia find out that you're in love with Rodney Alastair Duggan, alias Roddy?"

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I promise you, the next chapter will be up so soon!